Medicalização social e medicina alternativa e complementar: pluralização terapêutica do Sistema Único de Saúde

Abstract

Social medicalization transforms people's habits, discourages them from fi nding their own solutions to certain health problems and places an excess demand on the Unifi ed Health System. With regard to healthcare provision, an alternative to social medicalization is the pluralization of treatment provided by health institutions namely through the recognition and provision of alternative and complementary practices and medicines. The objective of the article was to analyze the potentials and diffi culties of alternative and complementary practices and medicines based on clinical and institutional experiences and on the specialist literature. The research concludes that the potential of such a strategy to "demedicalize" is limited and should be included in the remit of the Unifi ed Health System. The article highlights that the Biosciences retain a political and epistemiological hegemony over medicine and that the area of healthcare is dominated by market principles, whereby there is a trend towards the transformation of any kind of knowledge or structured practice related to health-illness processes into goods or procedures to be consumed, and this only reinforces heteronomy and medicalization.

Uso de práticas integrativas e complementares por doulas em maternidades de Fortaleza (CE) e Campinas (SP)

“…These knowledge and practices, as several studies point towards, follow a distinct paradigm (Luz, 2008;Tesser et al, 2008;Queiroz, 2000). The same way, the proposal of PICs favors the inclusion of integrative logic, which combines the "hard core" of several practices with quality, safety, and effectiveness, surpassing the excluding view (Barros, 2006).…”

“…Such difficulties shown in the work of doulas reflect the current context of the health field, which is interspersed with struggles between corporations and political pressures for space in the field of PICs (Tesser et al, 2008).…”

“…Thus, some authors point towards the need to reorganize health care practices (Luz, 2005;Luz, 2008;Tesser et al, 2008). It is possible to point towards the incorporation of unconventional therapeutic practices in public institutional spaces, even if not enough yet.…”

“…The work of doulas was regulated in 2006 by the MH, through the publication of Ordinance 971, which created Política Nacional de Práticas Integrativas e Complementares (National Policy of Integrative and Complementary Practices -PICs) with the scope of ensuring the prevention of illnesses, promoting and recovering health (Barros, 2006). These practices resume the search for simple therapeutic methods that seek the autonomy of being and of health (Tesser et al, 2008;Otani et al, 2011).…”

O movimento Yīn e Yáng na cosmologia da medicina chinesa

“…À medida que a concepção dualista do processo saúde e doença limita o adoecimento a problemas da máquina humana, como sendo passíveis de resolução pela biotecnologia químico-cirúrgica por intermédio da incorporação de alta tecnologia e medicalização, criam-se barreiras no processo de anamnese e exame clínico, que vão interferir na relação do terapeuta com o paciente (Tesser, Barros, 2008). Esse cuidado interventor retira a autonomia do sujeito no processo de construção da saúde e promove sua dependência pela atuação profissional e pelo uso de medicamentos.…”