Ethnomedical Approach
The ethnomedical approach of medical anthropology investigates differences between the types of medical treatment practiced across ethnic groups. While an anthropologist using the ethnomedical approach may just look at types of healing that Western medicine has “left behind”, it is also useful in discovering new pharmaceuticals.
There are differences in treatment across cultures because those cultures possess different thoughts and beliefs about the disease (such as in mechanism, or in social norms for treatment – if the “disease” is even really a disease). When it comes to mental disorders such as substance dependence, social stigma is a massive force that can act as a barrier to treatment from both the substance abuser and the healthcare provider’s point of view.
In one culture, substance dependence might just be the expected social norm. One example of this is in Somalia, where a drug called khat is used much like tobacco is in the United States and other modern countries. Khat is a mild stimulant similar to amphetamine. The majority of Somali are Muslim, thus they do not partake in alcoholic beverage and instead turn to khat. In 2006, fourteen Somali refugees in Seattle were arrested for smuggling khat into the country. The local Somali community leaders though expressed desire to prove that khat isn’t harmful and an important part of Somali culture, but that plea has gone unanswered.
Kleinman’s explanatory model of health asserts that both patients and providers have different thoughts and perceptions about a disease experience, its treatment and the ultimate goal of the health care intervention. Essentially his model expects the physician to ask the same questions directed at him by the patient. Unconventionally, the majority of substance dependent individuals are in effect treating themselves every time they ingest the substance to which they are addicted. When in this period of self-treating, the addict may justify the treatment as a way to maintain stability in their life – feeling that a medical intervention would radically change their lifestyle and allow their addiction to further impose on their life negatively.
The body has a biological entity and a seemingly “human” one, the way all of our parts work together in order to produce a unique individual. In some cases, the mind and the body are thought of as two separate mechanisms instead of as one cohesive unit. When it comes to substance addiction the underlying biological mechanisms are thought of as the products of something that has gone wrong with the mind, such as a traumatic past experience or a chemical imbalance due to environmental factors.
Bibliography
Hark, Lisa, and Horace DeLisser. Achieving Cultural Competency: A Case-Based Approach to Training Health Professionals. Online: Blackwell Publishing, 2009. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781444311686.app2/pdf (accessed August 16, 2013).
The ethnomedical approach of medical anthropology investigates differences between the types of medical treatment practiced across ethnic groups. While an anthropologist using the ethnomedical approach may just look at types of healing that Western medicine has “left behind”, it is also useful in discovering new pharmaceuticals.
There are differences in treatment across cultures because those cultures possess different thoughts and beliefs about the disease (such as in mechanism, or in social norms for treatment – if the “disease” is even really a disease). When it comes to mental disorders such as substance dependence, social stigma is a massive force that can act as a barrier to treatment from both the substance abuser and the healthcare provider’s point of view.
In one culture, substance dependence might just be the expected social norm. One example of this is in Somalia, where a drug called khat is used much like tobacco is in the United States and other modern countries. Khat is a mild stimulant similar to amphetamine. The majority of Somali are Muslim, thus they do not partake in alcoholic beverage and instead turn to khat. In 2006, fourteen Somali refugees in Seattle were arrested for smuggling khat into the country. The local Somali community leaders though expressed desire to prove that khat isn’t harmful and an important part of Somali culture, but that plea has gone unanswered.
Kleinman’s explanatory model of health asserts that both patients and providers have different thoughts and perceptions about a disease experience, its treatment and the ultimate goal of the health care intervention. Essentially his model expects the physician to ask the same questions directed at him by the patient. Unconventionally, the majority of substance dependent individuals are in effect treating themselves every time they ingest the substance to which they are addicted. When in this period of self-treating, the addict may justify the treatment as a way to maintain stability in their life – feeling that a medical intervention would radically change their lifestyle and allow their addiction to further impose on their life negatively.
The body has a biological entity and a seemingly “human” one, the way all of our parts work together in order to produce a unique individual. In some cases, the mind and the body are thought of as two separate mechanisms instead of as one cohesive unit. When it comes to substance addiction the underlying biological mechanisms are thought of as the products of something that has gone wrong with the mind, such as a traumatic past experience or a chemical imbalance due to environmental factors.
Bibliography
Hark, Lisa, and Horace DeLisser. Achieving Cultural Competency: A Case-Based Approach to Training Health Professionals. Online: Blackwell Publishing, 2009. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781444311686.app2/pdf (accessed August 16, 2013).