Individuel and social aspects of medication taking

More and more people are using pharmaceuticals, not only to prevent, manage or treat illness, but also to sustain health. My primary research interest concerns the individual and social effects of pharmaceutical treatment. I primarily use qualitative, ethnographic research method to explore matters of medication taking in everyday life, and document analysis to investigate changes in the understanding of the role of medicines in society. My research is situated at the cross-section of Science and Technology Studies (STS), social pharmacy and medical anthropology.

Elderly and pharmaceuticals (Velux project 2018-2021)

Project title: Decision Aid for the prescription of antidepressants among frail seniors

My post doc project explores the meanings of pharmaceuticals in the lives of frail seniors. In the project, I follow nurses working in a municipality homecare and do home visits and interviews with seniors, their relatives and their general practitioners. 

The projects takes a point of departure in the prescription and use of antidepressants for the treatment of mild-moderate depression among frail seniors. In the project, I explore the distributed decision-making processes in relation to the prescription of antidepressants and hereby seek to understand the role of the pharmaceuticals in the management of mental health.

Furthermore, the project is concerned with the meanings and consequences of polypharmacy and 'too much medicine' among frail seniors. The data will be used as a contribution to the conceptualisation of polypharmacy and what that means from the perspective of the users and homecare personal.

The project is financed by the Velux Foundation's project pool on Elderly and Medication.

The Routinization of statins in Denmark (2014-2018)

Title of PhD Dissertation: A Matter of Course. An Ethnographic Assemblage of the Routinization of Statins in Denmark

My PhD study was part of the interdisciplinary CPHU financed project; LIFESTAT - Living with statins, which focused on the prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) with cholesterol-lowering pharmaceuticals, statins. In the dissertation, I explore the transformation of statins from scientifically contested to standard of care by mapping how the field of preventive medicine is shaped by a variety of human actors, technologies and logics. I argue that pharmaceutical prevention of cardiovascular risk has become 'a matter of course'; a self-evident solution to the problem of being at risk. This framing of pharmaceutical prevention influences on the individual and clinical aspects of care.

As part of the project, I am co-authoring the site: www.kolesteroldialog.dk

April 2018- : Post doc, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen

Aug 2013- March 2018: PhD Fellow, Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen

Sep 2012- Aug 2013: Scientific Assistant, The Section of Social and Clinical Pharmacy, University og Copenhagen

Oct 2011- June 2012: Volunteer, Medical coordinator, Masanga Hospital, Sierra Leone

Sep 2010- Sep 2012: Master in Pharmacy, University of Copenhagen

Sep 2006- June 2010: Bachelor in Pharmacy, University of Copenhagen

My husband owns the consultency Reagens (www.reagens.dk)