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A consideration of medicalisation: Choice, engagement and other responsibilities of parents of children with autism spectrum disorder

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  • Valentine, Kylie

Abstract

Classic studies of medicalisation point to the 'rise of the experts' as disempowering patients and refusing to acknowledge their expertise in their own lives. More recently, medicalisation scholarship has taken a different turn, arguing that patient choice is both a responsibility imposed on patients, and a driver of medicalisation. To what extent does autism, a childhood developmental disorder in which parents are invited to take a close role, instantiate these different manifestations of medicalisation? This paper reports on a qualitative study of parents' experience of diagnosis and treatment, conducted in four states in Australia in 2008-2009. It draws on 49 interviews with parents of young children with autism, and with early intervention service providers and clinicians. Our study shows that the importance of choice in decisions around treatment cannot be subsumed under the single category of disenfranchisement or engagement. The diverse responses of parents to the diffuse, complex field of autism treatment illustrate an admixture of consumption, advocacy and education driving contemporary medicalisation.

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  • Valentine, Kylie, 2010. "A consideration of medicalisation: Choice, engagement and other responsibilities of parents of children with autism spectrum disorder," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(5), pages 950-957, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:71:y:2010:i:5:p:950-957
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Rasmussen, Pernille Skovbo & Pedersen, Inge Kryger & Pagsberg, Anne Katrine, 2020. "Biographical disruption or cohesion?: How parents deal with their child's autism diagnosis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 244(C).
    2. Angell, Amber M. & Solomon, Olga, 2014. "The social life of health records: Understanding families' experiences of autism," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 50-57.
    3. Laurie A. Drapela & Dana Lee Baker, 2014. "Policy Awareness, Financial Hardship, and Work Impact," SAGE Open, , vol. 4(3), pages 21582440145, September.
    4. Scavarda, Alice & Ariel Cascio, M., 2022. "Embracing and rejecting the medicalization of autism in Italy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 294(C).
    5. Edwards, Claire & Howlett, Etaoine, 2013. "Putting knowledge to trial: ‘ADHD parents’ and the evaluation of alternative therapeutic regimes," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 34-41.
    6. Turowetz, Jason, 2022. "Interaction order and the labeling of disorder: How parents mobilize personal knowledge in the clinic to resist medicalization of their children's behavior," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 294(C).

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