The Use of Psychiatric Drugs in Morocco: Between Family Experience and Medical Dialogue

This paper tends to compare the caregivers views on psychotropic drugs to those of patient's families with mental illness. The results indicate that despite some resemblance, the families representations concerning psychotropic drugs differ from those of the mental health professionals. The latter consider drugs as a quick remedy whose prescription is justified by their effectiveness on the daily symptoms subjectively experienced as painful or disabling for both family and patient. Families, in turn, express mixed even paradoxical attitudes. Psychotropic drugs are sometimes perceived as a solution that alleviates and legitimizes deviant behavior, that are sometimes seen as a stigmatizing element. Families also complain about the high cost of psychotropic drugs and their many side-effects, which condemn the patient to a bodiless death, a social death. However, families and caregivers agree that psychotropic drugs remain essential at times of crisis.