Life Context and Critical Medical Anthropology: Lessons Learned in the Management of Perinatal Substance Use

Abstract

This is a commentary on Preis et al.’s (2020) article “Improving Assessment, Treatment, and Understanding of Pregnancy Women With Opioid Use Disorder: The Importance of Life Context.” Here I note that, as part of this framework, attention must be paid to the history of addiction and substance use disorder, as well as the racialized notions of the illness and available treatment strategies. Attention to how the medical system inherently reifies inequity must be part of any application of life course theory to opioid use disorder in order to innovate novel solutions to avoid adverse health outcomes.

Keywords:

• Pregnant women
• opioid use
• substance use
• health disparities
• racialized treatment

Disclosure statement

The author has no conflicts to declare.