Antidepressiva i tiden - En studie om att påbörja, fortsätta och avsluta behandling med antidepressiv medicin

Sammanfattning: Much research has been done on antidepressants within social anthropology, mostly focusing on the experience of being on medication. This thesis examines attitudes towards antidepressant medication with emphasis on how decisions are made regarding commencement of a treatment, whether and when to continue or stop it, and how the future regarding an individual’s antidepressant use is imagined. Using ethnographic methods including interviews and analysis of diary entries from 14 Swedish informants, interpreted within a theoretical framework that includes neoliberal self-governance, therapeutic emplotment, and cognitive anthropology, this thesis investigates the narratives people create surrounding these decisions. The study shows how thinking about mental health and the symbolic meaning of antidepressant use are related to the acts of starting, continuing or stopping a treatment. Furthermore it demonstrates how other social agents affect and create narratives about these decisions and links imagined futures regarding antidepressant use to meanings given to past events, mental illness and the symbolism of medication.