Medications in workplace – a literature review

 

Catarina Egreja and Noémia Lopes

 

CiiEM – Centro de Estudos Interdisciplinares / Egas Moniz CRL, Almada, Portugal

 

cegreja@egasmoniz.edu.pt

 

Introduction: The purpose of this paper is to present the main conclusions drawn from a literature review related to the theme "Medications in Workplace". The interest that led to this literature collection is based on a larger project, currently underway[1], that focuses on the use of medicines, food supplements and other natural products to improve physical, intellectual and social performance (performance consumption [1]) in three professional groups. With this presentation we seek to highlight the correlation between various aspects of the nature of work and the consumption of these substances, the motives associated with it and the predominance of uses.

Materials and methods: The proposed presentation is characterized as a theoretical essay, based on a review of the literature on the topic “Medications in Workplace”, carried out through an extensive bibliographical research that has resulted in the collection and consultation of over a dozen of scientific articles, reports from governamental agencies and monographs, covering an extended period of time (1990-2018), from various disciplinary areas and with different professional and geographical focuses.

Results: The main aspects of work associated with substance use are stress, shift work and night time work, mainly because of their impact on the quality of sleep (2). The management of fatigue (physical and mental) and of the ability to concentrate in order to improve work performance is carried out, in several cases, through the consumption of certain substances (3). These substances, in turn, range from caffeine, to medicines (taken with or without a prescription), or even illegal drugs. While the reasons for consumption are quite homogeneous, its frequency varies strongly between studies due to different methodologies and conceptual criteria used.

Discussion and conclusions: The difficult quantification of consumption does not preclude the conclusion that we are dealing with a socially complex phenomenon when we speak of performance enhancing consumption that shows a change in the conventional use of therapeutic resources beyond the frontiers of health and disease that is important to continue studying, particularly from its social contexts. For example, to analyze if there are professional groups particularly vulnerable to these auxiliary consumptions and which factors differentiate them.

 

References:

1. Lopes N, Clamote T, Raposo H, Pegado, E, Rodrigues, C. Medications, youth therapeutic cultures and performance consumptions: a sociological approach. Health. 2005;19: 430-48.

2. Niedhammer I, Lert F, Marne J. Psychotropic drug use and shift work among French nurses (1980-1990). Psychological Medicine. 1995;25: 329-38.

3. British Medical Association. Alcohol, drugs and the workplace. A briefing from the BMA Occupational Medicine Committee. 2nd Edition, July 2016.

 

Acknowledgements: The authors acknowledge funding from the FCT (PTDC/SOC-SOC/30734/2017).

 

[1] “Medicines and dietary supplements in performance consumptions: social practices, contexts and literacy” (PTDC/SOC-SOC/30734/2017) – ConPerLit.