verb
- to treat or classify (a condition, behavior, or social issue) as a medical problem requiring medical intervention
Usage: chiefly British spelling; American English typically uses 'medicalize'; often used critically to suggest over-pathologization of normal human experiences
Examples
- Critics argue that society has medicalised shyness, turning a personality trait into a disorder.
- The tendency to medicalise grief has been questioned by mental health professionals.
- Some educators worry that schools medicalise normal childhood behavior with ADHD diagnoses.
- Feminist scholars have examined how medicine medicalised menopause as a disease.
- The pharmaceutical industry profits when it medicalises everyday human experiences.
- Doctors must be careful not to medicalise social problems that require social solutions.