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Ageing and memory medication: social rationales and consumption practices
Author(s) -
Lopes Noémia,
Pegado Elsa,
Zózimo Joana R.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
sociology of health and illness
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1467-9566
pISSN - 0141-9889
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9566.12586
Subject(s) - consumption (sociology) , frame (networking) , psychology , set (abstract data type) , resistance (ecology) , sociology , cognitive psychology , computer science , social science , telecommunications , ecology , biology , programming language
This article focuses on the social rationales underlying the consumption or rejection of medication for memory by the elderly. Our analysis is set within the wider frame of the current use of psychopharmaceuticals for the enhancement of everyday performance, discussing its relationship to new cultures of ageing. Our results, from a recently concluded study, point to different patterns of investment in memory in old age. On the one hand, we found a willingness to consume medication for memory – a heterogeneous disposition split between the imaginary of disease and that of performance enhancement. On the other hand, we found a cultural resistance and scepticism towards the use of psychopharmaceuticals for performance purposes. This suggests that a new frame of psychopharmaceuticalization of old age – represented by memory medication – is prompting different rationales, ranging from consumption to resistance.