Papers by Catherine Coveney
Social Science & Medicine
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First of all, we would like to acknowledge the contribution of Martin Anderson (MA) who instigate... more First of all, we would like to acknowledge the contribution of Martin Anderson (MA) who instigated and led this project as Principal Investigator until serious illness forced him to withdraw in January 2009. Michelle Stubley (MLS) worked on the study as full time Research Associate ...
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Sleep, until recently, has been a neglected topic or issue within sociology and the social scienc... more Sleep, until recently, has been a neglected topic or issue within sociology and the social sciences and humanities in general. At first glance this may seem unsurprising given the predominant waking assumptions, concerns or preoccupations of these disciplines. Further reflection, however, reveals the shortcomings of any such neglect or dismissal of sleep as a topic worthy of sociological attention. Sleep is a socially, culturally and historically variable phenomenon. How we sleep, when we sleep, where we sleep, what meaning and value we accord sleep, let alone with whom we sleep, are all important topics of sociological investigation which do not simply vary around the world, both past and present, but within different segments of society and within and between cultures. The nature, quantity and quality of sleep, moreover, is clearly important both for the individual and society in terms of health and safety, productivity and performance, quality of life and well-being. In part a re...
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Sociology of Health & Illness
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Health Policy and Technology
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Social Science & Medicine
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Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy
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Sociology of health & illness, Jan 21, 2018
In this paper we examine the medical management of sleeplessness as 'insomnia', through t... more In this paper we examine the medical management of sleeplessness as 'insomnia', through the eyes of general practitioners (GPs) and sleep experts in Britain. Three key themes were evident in the data. These related to (i) institutional issues around advocacy and training in sleep medicine (ii) conceptual issues in the diagnosis of insomnia (iii) and how these played out in terms of treatment issues. As a result, the bulk of medical management occurred at the primary rather than secondary care level. These issues are then reflected on in terms of the light they shed on relations between the medicalisation and the pharmaceuticalisation of sleeplessness as insomnia. Sleeplessness, we suggest, is only partially and problematically medicalised as insomnia to date at the conceptual, institutional and interactional levels owing to the foregoing factors. Much of this moreover, on closer inspection, is arguably better captured through recourse to pharmaceuticalisation, including coun...
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Social science & medicine (1982), Apr 1, 2017
Injury is a conspicuous feature of the practice and public spectacle of contemporary elite sports... more Injury is a conspicuous feature of the practice and public spectacle of contemporary elite sports. The paper argues that the 'biomedicalisation' thesis (medico-industrial nexus, techno-scientific drivers, medical optimisation, biologisation, the rise of evidence and health surveillance) goes some way to capturing the use in elite sports injury of some highly specialised mainstream therapies and some highly maverick biological therapies, which are described. Nevertheless, these main strands of biomedicalisation do not capture the full range of these phenomena in the contexts of sports medicine and athletes' practices in accessing innovative, controversial therapies. Drawing on multi-method qualitative research on top-level professional football and cycling in the UK, 2014-2016, we argue that concepts of 'magic' and faith-based healing, mediated by notions of networking behaviour and referral systems, furnish a fuller explanation. We touch on the concept of 'me...
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Sociology of health & illness, Jun 20, 2017
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Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy
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... Medicalisation From patients to consumers of healthcare The biomedical era ... Over the past ... more ... Medicalisation From patients to consumers of healthcare The biomedical era ... Over the past decade, neurotechnologies technologies which can be used to augment brain function in ... orientated around the prospect of improving cognition or, put simply, achieving better ...
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... Medicalisation From patients to consumers of healthcare The biomedical era ... Over the past ... more ... Medicalisation From patients to consumers of healthcare The biomedical era ... Over the past decade, neurotechnologies technologies which can be used to augment brain function in ... orientated around the prospect of improving cognition or, put simply, achieving better ...
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Salute E Societa, 2012
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Sociology of health & illness, Jan 20, 2015
The pharmaceuticalisation of sleep is a contentious issue. Sleep medicines get a 'bad press&#... more The pharmaceuticalisation of sleep is a contentious issue. Sleep medicines get a 'bad press' due to their potential for dependence and other side effects, including studies reporting increased mortality risks for long-term users. Yet relatively little qualitative social science research has been conducted into how people understand and negotiate their use/non-use of sleep medicines in the context of their everyday lives. This paper draws on focus group data collected in the UK to elicit collective views on and experiences of prescription hypnotics across different social contexts. Respondents, we show, drew on a range of moral repertoires which allowed them to present themselves and their relationships with hypnotics in different ways. Six distinct repertoires about hypnotic use are identified in this regard: the 'deserving' patient, the 'responsible' user, the 'compliant' patient, the 'addict', the 'sinful' user and the 'noble'...
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Augmenting Cognition, 2011
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In this paper we look at UK General Practitioners’ (GPs’) views of prescribing hypnotics in prima... more In this paper we look at UK General Practitioners’ (GPs’) views of prescribing hypnotics in primary care and compare and contrast these with patient perspectives and experiences, in the context of debates about the (de)pharmaceuticalisation of sleep. Data are qualitative in nature, drawn from focus groups with chronic users of sleeping pills and semi-structured interviews with GPs. We examine the degree to which the views of patients with respect to both aetiology of their sleep problem and prescription of pharmaceuticals converge or diverge with medical discourses on these matters. We discuss the role of so-called lay ‘expertise’ in the therapeutic management of sleep problems, the perceived value of pharmaceuticals, and the importance of building mutual trust between GPs and patients in the medical encounter. We argue that in practice, medical views on the value of hypnotics, beliefs about ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ patients and corresponding prescribing practices have permeabl...
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Papers by Catherine Coveney