@article{8671757,
  abstract     = {{Students' use of prescription stimulants to enhance study performance is increasingly under the spotlight. Medical guidelines discourage general practitioners (GPs) from prescribing stimulants to students without a diagnosis; yet a considerable proportion of students acquire them from GPs. Building on Eisenberg's theoretical framework on clinical decision-making and Conrad's sociological concept of biomedical enhancement, this study examined the social context of GPs' off-label prescribing decisions for stimulants, using data from 21 semi-structured interviews, including vignettes, undertaken with Flemish GPs. Results identified two groups of GPs: (1) hard-liners who strictly follow medical guidelines and who would only prescribe in case of an appropriate diagnosis and (2) context-dependent GPs who would prescribe stimulants depending on the patients' symptoms and extent of need. GPs' decisions depend on one-on-one doctor-patient interactions (i.e. the extent of empathy from the doctor and the extent of assertiveness from the patient); the extent to which GPs define concentration problems as medical problems; GPs' interactions with fellow health care workers; as well as GPs' interaction with the wider community. By disentangling these influences, this paper advances both theoretical and practical understanding of the sociological context in which GPs' off-label prescribing behaviour occurs.}},
  author       = {{De Bruyn, Sara and Wouters, Edwin and Ponnet, Koen and Tholen, Robert and Masquillier, Caroline and Remmen, Roy and Van Hal, Guido}},
  issn         = {{0141-9889}},
  journal      = {{SOCIOLOGY OF HEALTH & ILLNESS}},
  keywords     = {{Public Health,Environmental and Occupational Health,Health Policy,Health(social science),prescription stimulants,enhancement,general practitioners,prescribing behaviour,social context,qualitative research,DECISION-MAKING,NONMEDICAL USE,PHYSICIAN,MEDICINE,ENHANCEMENT,DISORDER,MISUSE}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{7}},
  pages        = {{1657--1672}},
  title        = {{Off‐label prescribing of stimulant medication to students : a qualitative study on the general practitioner perspective}},
  url          = {{http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.13166}},
  volume       = {{42}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}

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