Entre o ensino e os fármacos: medicalização do trabalho docente na contemporaneidade

Abstract

This article discusses the growing illness among teachers and the consequent use of psychotropic drugs as a coping strategy for professional burnout. It is based on the premise that the medicalization of psychological suffering (originating from precarious working conditions) turns a structural and collective problem into an individual health issue, contributing to its depoliticization. This is a qualitative and exploratory research conducted with 14 teachers—10 from Basic Education and 4 from Higher Education—using interviews as the main instrument. The data constructed indicate that work overload, expressed in the accumulation of classes, administrative tasks, and pressure for academic productivity, creates a chronically stressful environment that triggers symptoms such as anxiety and insomnia. In this context, teachers resort to antidepressants and anxiolytics, understanding medicalization as a necessary resource to continue their professional activity. It is concluded that, although medication use may be an immediate response to suffering, it also operates as a silencing mechanism, contributing to the maintenance of a sick educational system. The study emphasizes the urgency of public policies aimed at improving teaching working conditions, reducing workload, and enhancing professional value as essential paths toward the demedicalization and humanization of the teaching profession.