The use of human enhancement drugs (HED), which include prescription drugs and other substances used for reasons beyond their intended medical use, has been the subject of considerable interest since the late 2000s. However, there is a lack of research exploring how working conditions and organisational norms may significantly contribute to an individual's decision to use substances for enhancement or performance purposes. Building on the concept of pharmaceuticalisation to examine the case of enhancement drugs use in the financial industry, this article highlights how the social context, particularly the workplace, can be central to analysing the causes and modalities of substance use for performance or enhancement purposes. This study therefore approaches the financial sector as a site where such processes may be observed in particularly acute forms. Through a qualitative analysis of an online forum, this study explores the experiences, motivations, opinions and beliefs about such substance use in the financial industry. The findings suggest that substance use is openly discussed in the forum and that difficult working conditions appear to contribute to shaping the modalities of such use. Stress and long working hours were the most reported problems associated with substance use. The study also shows that, far from being neutral, medicines and in particular HED themselves play a key social and normative role in the process of accepting these extreme working conditions. The narratives about the use of performance-enhancing substances created and disseminated within the community studied contribute to the idea that the micromanagement of the worker's bodies is ultimately the main tool available to adapt to their working conditions.
Collin et al. (Sun,) studied this question.
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