Iatrogênese social e velhice: estudo sobre bioeconomia da doença de Alzheimer

• Autor(a) principal: Duarte, Franciely Fernandes
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da UFPB
• Texto Completo: https://repositorio.ufpb.br/jspui/handle/123456789/22646
• topic: Doença de Alzheimer; Iatrogênese social; Velhice e envelhecimento; Sociologia da saúde; Alzheimer's disease; Social iatrogenesis; Old age and aging; Sociology of health; CNPQ::CIENCIAS HUMANAS::SOCIOLOGIA

The accelerated growth of the elderly population is a fact present worldwide. In this perspective, World Health Organization (WHO) statistics point not only to increased life expectancy (longevity) but also to a higher incidence of chronic and degenerative diseases in the elderly population (BORGES, 2003). Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the most common causes of dementia in this group, with a multifactorial etiology including genetic and environmental factors and with some established risk factors. According to Valls-Pedret et. al. (2010), currently, the diagnosis is based on the application of clinical criteria, there is no definitive and safe algorithm it is diagnosis just established with certainty after a histological study of the brain through cerebral autopsy. About 40 million people in the world are affected by AD, the impact of AD in today's society is evident, bringing significant suffering to its bearer and his family, as well as to society in general. Being identified as a possible Alzheimer's patient, a neurodegenerative disease without a cure implies a future rupture in everyday life and social practices. Moreover, we seek to understand the characteristics of biomedical classifications and practices that structure the rationale of medical discourse on the clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease. Thus, making it possible for the speech that, seems obvious about the pathologization of the aging process to become problematic, so that it is interesting to understand and verify the line that separates natural and pathological old age. We seek to consider the aging process different from how the medical discourse presents and thinks, we direct our gaze through the understanding that dementia in general and Alzheimer's, in particular, emerge as an iatrogenic category of old age. This study is configured as qualitative research, in which procedures such as bibliographic research, semistructured interviews, the use of a field diary provided subsidies to achieve the intended objectives. This study was carried out with relatives of people diagnosed with AD, also specialist medical professionals, professors, and researchers related to AD, and with some managers of municipal and state institutions in the city of João Pessoa, PB. Evidence how the social understanding of old age is rethought, redefined, and socially repositioned by the biomedical discourse of pathologizing old age - medicalization of aging, and that parallel to this process, Alzheimer's disease emerges as a scientific fact, a new nosological entity within the field of biomedicine, allowed this study to present the reality that characterizes the emergence of Alzheimer's Disease. The results of this study show how the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease is relational due to the absence of medical diagnostic technologies, which are subject to subjectivities, knowledge about the disease, and the experiences of family members and professionals in this process. To sum up, the definitions regarding the concept of Alzheimer's disease arise relationally in the field of construction of its concept as a nosological entity, in the scientific environment, as well as concerning the knowledge and experience with the disease in everyday life. What makes us clear about another important point that we dealt with in this study is that social iatrogenesis can be, thought of from the biomedical effects and its consequences in all social spheres of the life of the person who receives the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease.