This review presents the definition and goals of social pharmacology, a new branch of clinical pharmacology, investigating relationships between drugs and society through the example of medicamentation, defined as the use of drugs for social problems previously not requiring drug utilisation (ageing, smoking cessation, vigilance troubles, sleep synchronisation, loss of libido, etc.). The involvement of the different actors from our society (patients, physicians, pharmaceutical industries, clinical pharmacologists, regulatory agencies, etc.) in this phenomenon is also discussed.