DOI: 10.17151/culdr.2022.27.33.8
How to Cite
Morán Pérez, A. V. . (2022). “I do not sell medicines, I am a doctor”. Medical prescription in doctors’ offices adjacent to pharmacies, game of tensions and negotiations. Cultura Y Droga, 27(33), 163–184. https://doi.org/10.17151/culdr.2022.27.33.8

Authors

Ana Victoria Morán Pérez
CIESAS
ana00.moran@gmail.com
Perfil Google Scholar

Abstract

The expansion of the doctors’ offices adjacent to pharmacies (OAPs) in Mexico, the need to investigate how physicians prescribe medicines in these establishments has increased due to the inherent link between clinic and pharmacy, central characteristic of the OAPs. This article aims at describing prescribing practices in doctors’ offices adjacent to pharmacies located south of Mexico City, and analyze the determinants that influence them, as well as the meanings that physicians attribute to this activity. A qualitative methodology was used under which in-depth interviews and informal conversations that gathered the perspectives of 22 doctors on the prescriptive act. The factors that determine the criteria for prescribing, the existence of possible 
conflicts of interest and the tensions-negotiations —between doctors, patients, dispensers and pharmacy owners— that are articulated around medicines are shown. The conclusions suggest that OAPs are spaces where actors with different interests and expectations converge but who share a reference in medicines, as a polysemic and multidimensional object-process. Likewise, it is concluded that these doctors’ offices fulfill a double function: to provide health care while, at the same time, becoming new markets for pharmaceutical consumption. 

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