ABSTRACT
This paper describes and analyzes some processes by which anxiety and daily life are transformed into pharmacological targets by public health professionals in Uruguay. Through 2013 and 2014 we carried out in-depth interviews with 10 qualified informants, 35 public health professionals (general practitioners, family doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists) and two discussion groups (One with general practitioners and family doctors, and other with psychologists) as well as a national literature review on the subject. The crossing of two understandings of anxiety was identified: one belonging to the medical field, based on concepts distant from experience and another belonging to the social field, based on the experience of professionals with their patients. We conclude that their link with "sociological hypotheses" of anxiety make it possible to transform daily problems derived from the pressing socio-economic situation that patients live into problems that can be pharmacologically managed by benzodiazepines.
KEYWORDS:
Anxiety; Benzodiazepines; Psychopharmacology; Everyday Life