Side effects are common, but their origins and consequences remain unclear. Medications that target a disease can produce reactions far removed from it. Few side effects have been provably linked to a drug's active ingredients. But side effects matter: Many people are reluctant to take vaccines and other pharmaceuticals because of side effects, even if these reactions are minor compared to the disease a medication prevents or treats. Because side effects do not fit comfortably within the framework of modern medicine, they continue to confound.
This book uncovers the social origins of side effects and their consequences for patients, physicians, and the health care system. Jason Schnittker and Duy Do argue that side effects emerge from the interaction of cultural, institutional, and psychological factors. Side effects reflect how manufacturers and regulators evaluate the effectiveness and safety of a drug, as well as how physicians consider the risks and benefits. They are also influenced by the beliefs, expectations, and experiences that patients use to interpret their treatment and symptoms. Drawing on pharmaceutical data, surveys, and public opinion polls, Schnittker and Do develop a framework for understanding the social ecology of side effects. A keen sociological analysis of how we grapple with medicine's unintended consequences, this book shows how side effects are shaped by their social context.
By:
Jason Schnittker (Professor University of Pennsylvania),
Duy Do
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 216mm,
Width: 140mm,
ISBN: 9780231217798
ISBN 10: 023121779X
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 05 May 2026
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction. Unintended Consequences in the Making of a Pharmaceutical Nation 1. Common Side Effects 2. The Biological and Psychological Origins of Side Effects 3. The Extensive Efficacy of Pharmaceuticals 4. The Pervasive and Growing Nocebo Effect 5. Double Blind: Institutional and Organizational Influences on Side Effects 6. A Matter of Faith: Patients, Trust, and the Interpretation of Side Effects 7. To Abstain from All Intentional Harm: The Treatment of Side Effects in Clinical Settings 8. Side Effects and the Paradoxes of Mental Health: The Case of Depression 9. Vulnerability, Side Effects, and the COVID-19 Vaccine Epilogue. A Paradox of Progress and the Future of Side Effects Acknowledgments Data Appendix Notes Bibliography Index
Jason Schnittker is a professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. His previous Columbia University Press books are The Diagnostic System: Why the Classification of Psychiatric Disorders Is Necessary, Difficult, and Never Settled (2017) and Unnerved: Anxiety, Social Change, and the Transformation of Modern Mental Health (2021). Duy Do is a senior research advisor at Evernorth Research Institute. He holds a PhD in demography from the University of Pennsylvania.
Reviews for Side Effects: The Social Ecology of Adverse Drug Reactions
In Side Effects, Jason Schnittker and Duy Do provide a deeply researched sociological appreciation of contemporary society’s attempt to perceive and manage side effects. In a dazzling exposition of scholarly insights, this book’s dual strengths reside in providing an interdisciplinary synthesis of the scholarship on side effects and in offering groundbreaking empirical quantitative analyses. -- Stefan Timmermans, coauthor of <i>The Unclaimed: Abandonment and Hope in the City of Angels</i> Schnittker and Do show how focusing on side effects—rather than shunting them aside—yields powerful insights. Though experienced individually and idiosyncratically, side effects are simultaneously social and cultural. This pathbreaking book takes a vital first step toward unraveling their confounding mysteries. -- Owen Whooley, author of <i>On the Heels of Ignorance: Psychiatry and the Politics of Not Knowing</i>
