RT Journal
A1 Rawson NB
T1 Prescribed: Writing, filling, using, and abusing the prescription in modern america
JF JAMA
JO JAMA
YR 2012
FD December 26
VO 308
IS 24
SP 2628
OP 2628
DO 10.1001/jama.308.24.2628
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.308.24.2628
AB 
The editors state that Prescribed is “a collaborative vision on the part of ten historians of American medicine whose work has converged to illuminate our understanding of the prescription as an object of mutual interest and urgent relevance in understanding changes in the material, political, economic, cultural, and epistemological dimensions of therapeutic authority that took place over the second half of the twentieth century in the United States” (p 3). This lofty goal is achieved by focusing on 4 themes: (1) how the prescription forms a boundary between different professional identities and between the professions and the public; (2) how the prescription is a hub for the maintenance of the authority of physicians as well as a focus for campaigns against the dominating influence of the medical profession; (3) the underlying commercial nature of the prescription process; and (4) the commercial and public health knowledge inherent in prescriptions and actions to unlock it.