Patient Advocacy, Drug Promotion, and the Feminist Paradox: An Analysis of the Canadian Pain Coalition

Healthcare has changed significantly over the past few decades with the emergence of neoliberalism as a dominant ideology informing policy. This paper examines the Canadian Pain Coalition’s (CPC) conceptualization of chronic pain and its treatment in the context of neoliberalism. Through content analysis of the CPC’s online materials, we show how the advocacy group constructs pain as an individual’s responsibility and a physical disease that can be managed primarily with pharmaceutical medication.  Drawing on insights from the social determinants of health and feminist literatures, we suggest that the CPC’s construction of pain as a physical disease, an individual responsibility, and its emphasis on pharmaceutical treatment is inadequate in addressing the complex social, economic, and physical needs of people living with chronic pain.  Taking up Susan Markens’ concept of the “feminist paradox,” we suggest that there is a necessary tension in the construction of pain as disease.  On the one hand, it is constructed in terms of providing access to treatments, while on the other, it potentially medicalizes people living with chronic pain.  Finally, we discuss how the CPC does not adequately address the side of the tension concerning medicalization, given the strong association between the CPC and the pharmaceutical companies.