A social history of medicines in the twentieth century : to be taken three times a day / John K. Crellin.

New York ; London : Pharmaceutical Products Press, 2004.

xi, 340 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

The big canvas: issues and context -- Some key questions -- Social validation of medicines -- Regionalism in the story of medicines -- Organization of the book -- Rural scenes -- Public/community health -- Colonialism -- Writing the story -- Prelude: seventeenth to nineteenth centuries -- An early search for new remedies -- Interfaces: conventional medicines, self-care, and commercialism -- Weakness and social conditions -- Prevention and treatment -- The medicines -- Pharmacological effects, cascades and social validation -- Authority and patients faith -- Authority and prescription medicines -- Authority, gatekeeping, and responsibilities -- Authority: the druggists role -- The challenges of change -- Validation, rejection, ambivalence, and four themes -- Theme 1: accommodating new medicines -- Theme 2: patients dependence and professional gatekeeping -- Theme 3: public confidence: challenges and responses --

Theme 4: changing relationships: from compliance to concordance -- Epilogue. Do we need a new therapeutics?

Includes bibliographical references and index.