Forced ou chosen self-treatment – AUTOMED

The year 2008 marked an important turn in terms of self-treatment , in a context of health expenses shortening and healthcare reforms. Following the example of Great Britain in 2000, the French government invited patients to support their own health for « benign situations », favouring free access to certain medicines available without prescription in pharmacies. Nevertheless, the promotion of self-treatment, following an economic rationale, raises the risk of favouring a problematic use of medicines, in the absence of independent and reliable information of the patient. Self-treatment and free access raise the issue of responsibility and education of the patient, and could be a relevant indicator of inequalities in accessing healthcare.
In the frame of the “Social determinants of health” call for project, this project proposes original analyses of socio-economic, social, territorial and pathological factors determining self-treatment. This project mobilises researchers in general medicine and general practitioners, as well as researchers in sociology and social geography. This research is not only pluridisciplinary, but also integrated, giving ground for the common construction of research tools and operations, and looking forward to crossing multiple explicative data amidst the same population.
The theoretical framework of this project, structurally and strategically marked by the notion of autonomy of the patient, steps on Robert Castel’s analysis of negative individualism, in which “autonomy” is a burden for the one who has low economic resources and insufficient social support, but experienced as freedom for the one who benefits from social security and social affiliation