Angel Martínez-Hernáez

Universitat Rovira i Virgili | URV · Department of Anthropology, Philosophy and Social Work

Background: Depression affects a considerable proportion (12-25 %) of adolescents and so-called emerging adults (ages of 18 and 25). The aims of this study were to explore the relationship between perceived social support and depression in a sample of emerging adults, and subsequently to identify the type of social support young people consider mo...

The dramatic increase in the consumption of antidepressants is one indicator, among others, of the contemporary cerebralization of human affliction. This process has been led by expert systems, creating new biosocialities or neurosocialities, and new models of self as well: the neural self. While some research minimizes the neuro-colonization of th...

Antipsychotic medication is the primary treatment for psychotic conditions such as schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders; nevertheless, its administration is not free from conflicts. Despite taking their medication regularly, 25–50% of patients report no benefits or perceive this type of treatment as an imposition. Following in the footsteps...

Structural and intercultural competence approaches have been widely applied to fields such as medical training, healthcare practice, healthcare policies and health promotion. Nevertheless, their systematic implementation in epidemiological research is absent. Based on a scoping review and a qualitative analysis, in this article we propose a checkli...

The papers in this special section work together to move toward a global social medicine for the 22nd century. They envision a global social medicine that confronts and moves beyond the traditionally colonial, xenophobic, heteronormative, patriarchal, gender-binary-bound, capitalist, and racist histories of the fields of global health and human rig...

Half of all mental health disorders appear during adolescence, although it is still far from clear how they relate to gender (not sex) criteria. This study aims both to analyse the relationship between gender and adolescent mental health and to propose an index: the Gender Adherence Index (GAI). We used cross-sectional, secondary data from 3888 ado...

Structural competency is an emerging paradigm for both the training of health professionals and the creation of a common language addressing structural processes that determine health disparities. However, its application to the field of epidemiological design and research is absent. Based on our previous proposal of a tool for Structural and Inter...

Brazilian mental health care reform understands mental health as a complex social process. There is a large literature production within the country focused on deinstitutionalization policy, social determinants of mental health and human rights, however, with little recognition beyond Latin American borders. In addition, cultural dimensions of ment...

In the early 1990s, while I was conducting an ethnographic study in a psychosocial rehabilitation center in Barcelona for people suffering from psychosis, a patient and informant gave me four letters that he had supposedly sent to various recipients. Only recently did I discover that these letters, which warned of terrible catastrophes, were relate...

People with functional disability endure barriers to health and other services and to full participation in social life. In the context of COVID-19, this discrimination has been intensified worldwide. We examine how the experience of COVID-19 lockdown was depicted in comments to a video about functional disability and COVID published on VICE’s YouT...

Introduction Half of all mental health disorders appear during adolescence, although it is still far from clear how they relate to gender (not sex) criteria. This study aims both to analyse the relationship between gender and adolescent mental health and to propose an index: the Gender Adherence Index (GAI). Methods We used cross-sectional, second...

In most Mediterranean countries, people diagnosed with severe mental disorders (SMDs) are typically cared for by the mother, causing a significant burden on people in this family role. Based on a broader mental health participatory action and qualitative research carried out in Catalonia (Spain) of 12 in-depth interviews and 3 focus groups, this ar...

Dedicated to Susan DiGiacomo, this book addresses through an international lens the experiences of illness, the challenges of care, the politics and biopolitics of health and the ethical dilemmas related to subjectivity and afflictions in current medical care. In an era of biomedical technology and life-prolonging treatments, taking into account th...

En este texto presentamos una aproximación al concepto de autonomía aplicado al campo de la salud mental tomando como marco la “Guía para la gestión autónoma de la medicación” (GAM) y su despliegue en Brasil y España. La estrategia GAM plantea una comprensión de la autonomía alejada de una visión individualista para aproximarse a una perspectiva so...

As made clear by diverse research in critical public health and the medical social sciences, social inequities in health reflect a paradox central to global health: while social structures are often invoked discursively, they are not sufficiently investigated nor responded to in public health, clinical practice, nor policy. In recent years, structu...

Nuestro objetivo en este texto es analizar las transformaciones en la concepción del mundo vital y el malestar emocional asociado en el tránsito de la adolescencia a la edad adulta apoyándonos en los resultados de una investigación cualitativa y etnográfica que realizamos en Cataluña entre los años 2009 y 2015. Este estudio era parte del proyecto «...

In this short text, the author makes a portrait of Tullio Seppilli. The portrait highlights Tullio Seppilli’s choice for critical rationalism, the role of his political convictions and the academic ethics of an outstanding master of medical anthropology.

This guide is the result of a research project co-directed by researchers from Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) and Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). The project was financed through a RecerCaixa grant, approved in 2016. No funding was received from any pharmaceutical or healthcare company in the production of the guide. The research team re...

Soltar amarras. Una introducción a la salud mental colectiva presenta la experiencia del sufrimiento mental como un fenómeno multidimensional que exige, a su vez, una tarea de complementariedad entre disciplinas, una apertura en los marcos conceptuales de referencia y una tendencia al ejercicio hermenéutico permanente. Por ello, analiza los orígene...

La pandemia global de la COVID-19 y sus derivadas en la vida social, política y económica han intensificado algunas de las desigualdades y vulnerabilidades existentes, a la vez que han propiciado nuevas formas de vivir lo cotidiano, marcadas principalmente por el confinamiento. Nuestra investigación pretende analizar, desde el prisma de la antropol...

(From Introduction) Ángel Martínez-Hernáez y equipo (Andrea García-Santesmases Fernández, Asun Pié Balaguer, Deborah Bekele, Elisa Alegre-Agís, Martín Correa-Urquiza, Mercedes Serrano-Miguel, Nicolás Morales Sáez y Xavier Cela Bertran) abordan los conflictos entre pacientes, profesionales y cuidadores respecto a la medicación neuroléptica o antipsi...

El sufrimiento mental grave está asociado con una dolorosa experiencia de desconexión con el mundo social que acrecienta todavía más la aflicción y la adversidad de las personas afectadas. En un contexto clínico Post-Reforma, marcado por la hegemonía de la respuesta farmacológica, las narrativas de aflicción de los sujetos quedan a menudo invisibil...

https://editora.redeunida.org.br/project/ja-viste-como-chora-uma-cerejeira-passos-para-uma-antropologia-da-esquizofrenia/

The collaborative management of medication guide. The Catalan version.

Indigenous people’s health in Brazil is organized by the indigenous health subsystem, structured according to that of SUS, and described in the National Policy for Health Care of Indigenous Peoples. Alcohol consumption has been regarded as a health issue among indigenous peoples. In this paper, we describe the representations attributed by health p...

Video resulting from the Collaborative Management of Medication in Mental Health project. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLIdm4Qu5qC4rENpGypsXDiMH9ASf7eDeY&time_continue=7&v=c7K8qlkjNJ8&feature=emb_logo

Video resulting from the Collaborative Management of Medication in Mental Health project. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=14&v=4luEoiI37f8&feature=emb_logo

Video resulting from the Collaborative Management of Medication in Mental Health project. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNHe2LFdvNg&feature=emb_logo

In this article, we explore relationships between risk and emotions among Bolivian women living with Chagas disease, and the implications of this for their diagnosis and treatment in Catalonia, Spain. Here, risk is a social phenomenon, while emotions are conceived as embedded in the sociocultural and relational world. Emotions play key risk-related...

A saúde indígena no Brasil está regulamentada pelo subsistema de saúde indígena, estruturado a partir do SUS e descrito na Política Nacional de Atenção à Saúde dos Povos Indígenas. O uso do álcool tem sido visto como um problema entre povos indígenas. Nesse artigo descrevemos as representações atribuídas por profissionais de saúde em relação ao uso...

Introduction: Breast cancer is the leading cause of death by cancer in women in Brazil. Timely access to treatment is a priority for health policy in the country. However, indicators of the disease are not equally distributed between women. Poverty and low levels of schooling associate with late diagnosis, worse prognosis and lower survival. Object...

Aquest text, de caràcter testimonial i biogràfic, vol ser un homenatge compartit a la memòria de qui fou mestre d’antropòlegs i, al mateix temps, el creador de la majoria de les estructures institucionals que van permetre la consolidació de la nostra disciplina a Catalunya. L’abast de la seva obra pionera és indispensable, també, per a entendre la...

¿Qué es un síntoma, una realidad natural o la expresión simbólica del sufrimiento? En el contexto de la ciencia occidental, el síntoma ha sido considerado un objeto indiscutible de las ciencias médicas. Si bien los manuales de medicina y de psiquiatría han diferenciado entre los signos (físicos), en tanto que observados por el profesional, y los sí...

RESUMO Objetivo: Compreender os significados que as pessoas atribuem à utilização de plantas nas práticas de autoatenção em situações de padecimento. Método: Pesquisa qualitativa, exploratório-descritiva de orientação etnográfica, ancorada na antropologia da saúde com informantes selecionados via rede de relações. A coleta ocorreu por entrevista se...

Abstract: The concept of the “crisis of presence” (crisi della presenza) was first articulated by Ernesto de Martino in his theoretical books and developed in his ethnographic studies of magic and ritual in the Italian south. This notion directs our attention to the fragility of presence (esserci) in a world that threatens to collapse subjectivity,...

The concept of “crisis of presence” (crisi della presenza) was coined by Ernesto de Martino in his theoretical books and developed in his ethnographic studies of magic and ritual in the Italian south. This notion directs our attention to the fragility of presence (esserci) in a world that threatens to collapse subjectivity, resulting in loss of the...

Purpose: to verify the association between self-perception of health, gender, age, economic status, quality of life, cultural aspects and contexts of violence in high school adolescents. Methods: an observational analytical cross-sectional study with a probabilistic sample composed of 386 high school students aged 15-19 years. The data collection w...

Throughout European history, madness has been associated with two states: movement and confinement. These apparently contradictory states converge in an ob-scene state, in the etymological sense of the word: offstage. In this chapter, based on data from ethnographic work in the Catalan mental health care network, it is argued that “being obscene” r...

Collective health is a paradigm with a long history in Latin America. Similarly, collective mental health has had an interesting development in certain Latin American countries, even acting to stimulate psychiatric reform. However, both paradigms appear to be encapsulated in specific times and places, among other reasons because of a hegemonic glob...

El aumento incesante del consumo de antidepresivos en la mayoría de países de capitalismo avanzado puede tomarse como un ejemplo de la cerebralización contemporánea de las aflicciones humanas. Este proceso ha sido desarrollado por los sistemas expertos y ha filtrado en la cultura popular global creando nuevas biosocialidades o neurosocialidades, as...

O objetivo do manuscrito foi relatar e discutir a experiência de pesquisadores brasileiros, do campo da saúde, em um programa da área da antropologia. Trata-se de relato de experiência elaborado na perspectiva de se reconhecerem e discutirem, de maneira crítica, as experiências dos pesquisadores no campo antropológico da educação continuada e perma...

The purpose of this manuscript was to report and discuss the experience of Brazilian health researchers, going through a program in the area of anthropology. This experience report aims to acknowledge and critical discuss the experiences of the researchers in the anthropology field of continued and permanent education, in the background of the PhD...

Over the past 20 years, a range of conceptual frameworks has been developed to examine how social and economic determinants intersect with health and well-being. While the importance of cultural contexts is frequently referenced in these frameworks (in a positive or negative way), the concrete ways in which value systems, traditions and beliefs aff...

Health sector is an important point to attend in this privatized world. Participative researchaction configures itself as an optimum way to face health inequalities, because it allows us to work in a collaborative way joint with general population to improve health, wellbeing and quality of life.

In this article we propose a review of medical anthropology in Spain from a historical perspective. The article discusses different stages: 1. the historical relations between medicine and anthropology, including the emergence of medical folklore (19th-20th centuries), 2. the origin of medical anthropology and the obstacles to the emergence of the...

Introduction Binge drinking and mental health problems in the depression/anxiety spectrum often begin in adolescence as co-occurring phenomena. Objective and Aims To evaluate the mediating role of socioeconomic status in the association between binge drinking and adolescent depression/anxiety. Method A prospective cohort study of adolescents (n=3...

Introduction Depression/anxiety disorders and smoking behavior often begin in adolescence as co-occurring phenomena. Epidemiologically, the relationship between them is bidirectional, Objective and Aims To examine both adolescent smoking as a predictor of depression/anxiety disorders, and the effect of these disorders on adolescent smoking. Metho...

El consumo de tabaco y los problemas de salud mental de tipo depresivo/ansioso son dos fenomenos que suelen iniciarse en la adolescencia y juventud con cierta co-ocurrencia. Ambos fenomenos guardan una relacion bidireccional que, en el caso de los jovenes, la hipotesis de automedicacion parece explicar de forma mas exhaustiva que otras opciones. El...

Mental health problems – particularly subclinical distress conditions, depression and anxiety – are common in adolescent. In Catalonia, the prevalence of mood disorders is 14.3% and the prevalence of anxiety disorders is considerably higher (31.9%). Despite this, young people are the age group that makes least use of mental health services. The stu...

Emotional distress is common in adolescence, and self-care strategies are frequently preferred to address it. The aim of this article is to analyze the self-care strategies among adolescents and young people diagnosed with depression or with self-perceived depressive distress in Catalonia using a qualitative design. We analyzed the self-care strate...

Este documento es el resultado de un trabajo de análisis y reflexión desarrollado en el marco del Comité de Ética Asistencial de la Fundación Congreso Catalán de Salud Mental (CEA FCCSM) a lo largo del año 2013. Durante dicho periodo, los miembros del CEA valoramos la situación de la hospitalización psiquiátrica en Cataluña y sus efectos sobre la v...

Aquest document és el resultat d’un treball d’anàlisi i reflexió desenvolupat en el marc del Comitè d’Ètica Assistencial de la Fundació Congrés Català de Salut Mental (CEA FCCSM) al llarg de l’any 2013. Durant l’esmentat període, els membres del CEA vam valorar la situació de l’hospitalització psiquiàtrica a Catalunya i els seus efectes en la vida...

This article develops an argument for recovering patient narratives from their erasure in classical semiotics. Taking as its point of departure the well-known medical distinction between physical signs (objective symptoms) and symptoms (subjective symptoms), it analyzes how the symptom has been relegated to the status of physical sign in the work o...

A survey of the medical anthropology history in Spain and of the recent trends of research. Recover and enlarge the data collected in some states of art done by the authors ten years ago

Background Adolescents and young adults often suffer from depression, but tend to avoid seeking professional help. The aim of this study was to explore the reasons for non-professional-help-seeking in a sample of young adults resident in Catalonia with depressive symptoms through a qualitative study. In addition, the subjects were invited to offer...

Il testo che il lettore ha tra le mani è una guida di buone prassi per affrontare i problemi psico-emozionali degli adolescenti e dei giovani. La ragione pratica della sua elaborazione è l’utilizzo su più livelli dei servizi professionali da parte delle persone di quest’età principalmente di fronte a situazioni di depressione e ansietà, oltre ai si...

In this text the production of anthropological knowledge about tourism by Spanish social anthropologists becomes the object of knowledge itself. To achieve this, the paper begins with an anthropological description of tourism. Then a genealogy of tourism as an object of phenomenological study is put forward, focusing on three epistemological moment...

En este artículo, nos proponemos analizar el horizonte epistemológico sobre el que se construye la psiquiatría de Kraepelin, particularmente su posición frente al problema de los criterios de clasificación de las enfermedades mentales, que fue un tema ampliamente discutido por la psiquiatría mundial a fines del siglo XIX. Analizamos de qué modo Kra...

El libro que se presenta al lector es una guía de buenas prácticas para la atención de los problemas psicoemocionales de los adolescentes y jóvenes. La razón práctica de su elaboración es la infrautilización de los servicios profesionales por parte de este grupo de edad ante situaciones de depresión y ansiedad, principalmente; aunque también ante l...

Lo teneis disponible de forma gratuita en el siguiente enlace: http://www.publicacionsurv.cat/llibres-digitals/antropologia-medica/item/397-orientaciones-para-las-buenas-prácticas-en-la-atención-psicosocial-de-jóvenes-y-adolescentes El libro que se presenta al lector es una guía de buenas prácticas para la atención de los problemas psicoemocionale...

Este libro es el resultado de una reflexión colectiva en el marco del X Coloquio REDAM (Red de Antropología Médica) que, bajo el título De la evidencia a la narrativa en la atención sanitaria: biopoder y relatos de aflicción, se realizó en junio de 2013 en Tarragona. El objetivo de este encuentro fue analizar tanto las “narrativas de la evidencia”,...

The idea that power relations structure social life is self-evident to most anthropologists. Western medical knowledge or biomedicine, and by extension science or scientific knowledge, however, has until relatively recently been exempt from anthropological scrutiny in political terms. An understanding of biomedicine as a system of knowledge that is...

Distinct models of health management reflect the core principles upon which they were founded and their institutional arrangement can lead to the improvement of health policy. This paper seeks to reflect on the potential benefits and limitations of the organizational structure and the social capital to lead to changes in the performance of public h...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzH0ze17Uts&feature=youtu.be https://vimeo.com/82190200

Resumo: Na história europeia, a loucura está associada com dois estados: o movimento e o confinamento. Estes estados aparentemente contraditórios convergem em um estado obsceno, no sentido etimológico da palavra: fora de cena. Neste artigo, baseado em dados etnográficos na rede de saúde mental de Barcelona, argumenta-se que o "estar obs-ceno" se pr...

In this paper we analyze the epistemological framework on which Kraepelin's psychiatry was built. We are particularly interested in Kraepelin's position relating to the criteria of classification of mental illnesses; a topic that was widely discussed by in psychiatry throughout the world at the end of the XIX century. We analyze his contributions t...

La depressió i els malestars associats estan en auge a la nostra societat. La depressió és la quarta malaltia en termes de prevalença mundial per la població general, i es preveu que el 2020 serà la segona malaltia més prevalent del món. Els nostres adolescents i joves, que seran els adults del futur, es veuran, per tant, afectats per l’augment d’a...

Objective To determine whether negative mood states constitute a risk factor for daily smoking during adolescence, and to specify the role of familial factors in the association between the two variables.Methods Cross-sectional study of a representative sample (second wave, Panel of Families and Childhood) of Catalan adolescents between 14 and 18 y...

Background: Heavy episodic drinking is widespread among adolescents, with serious health risks, including abuse / dependence in adulthood. The aim of this paper is to analyze the influence of negative mood states and some family variables on this type of drinking behavior among Catalan adolescents. Methods: Cross sectional study of a representative...

Background: Heavy episodic drinking is widespread among adolescents, with serious health risks, including abuse / dependence in adulthood. The aim of this paper is to analyze the influence of negative mood states and some family variables on this type of drinking behavior among Catalan adolescents. Methods: Cross sectional study of a representative...

To determine whether negative mood states constitute a risk factor for daily smoking during adolescence, and to specify the role of familial factors in the association between the two variables. Cross-sectional study of a representative sample (second wave, Panel of Families and Childhood) of Catalan adolescents between 14 and 18 years of age. Six...

Crashing Thunder by Paul Radin, translated into catalan

Knowledge about the itineraries of people seeking healthcare may contribute to our understanding of behavior in relation to healthcare and utilization of health services. In Brazil, however, despite their relevance there have been few studies into healthcare-seeking behavior and those available are relatively new and have not received the attention...

The health and well-being of children are intimately linked to their families' physical, emotional and social circumstances. Evaluation of children's health has most often been based on parental responses. This work investigates whether proxy health, family context and household factors are associated with child's poor health reported by parental f...