Physicians are under recent attack from their relationship with Big Pharma, but Julie Deardorff wonders if patients are partly to blame:
Congress is considering legislation to force the drug industry to delay advertising newly approved prescription drugs to give physicians more time to review safety and efficacy.But delays won’t address ad content — often deliberately vague about who is at risk of disease — nor the fact that doctors get most of their education about new drugs from drug companies themselves. Delays also don’t protect consumers from the power of advertising. Buying the wrong brand of toothpaste may have a minor health consequence. But taking a prescription drug, which your doctor is more likely to prescribe because you asked, can raise serious health issues.
Drug ads are of little educational value, and they minimize the benefits of nutrition and lifestyle changes. They also, ultimately, give pharmaceutical reps another way into a doctor’s office: through you.
Related posts:
- When drug side effects scare patients away from treatment
- Should consumer prescription drug ads be reined in?
- Data-mining for drug risks
- The waning effect of direct to consumer drug advertising
- Prescription drug abuse
- Are the Olympics going to affect prescription drug supply?
- "Avoiding drug companies and their advertisements is not the answer"
{ 3 comments }
Uncritical and credulous consumers just soak up the advertising crapola. The formula for slick direct to consumer advertising is demonstrated in the fictious drug Havidol (avafynatime) as shown at Havidol.com. Every element in typical adds is here. Medicalization of some aspect of normal being, convincing people that it’s not their fault, destigmatizing the condition, and putting a positive spin on the side effects (increased sense of well being, dermal gloss, etc.)
Make-over in a pill. No more outrageous a concept than the reality shows that convince people that they can transform themselves by addressing issues dermis deep.
Brilliant. Next time I need a complex medical decision made, can I call Julie? She not only knows every patient intimately, she knows what information we can and can’t handle. Perhaps she’d like to make all my health care decisions?
Anon 3:05 -
Havidol, rocks! I hope it gets advertised on TV, radio, magazines, perhaps by Rush Limbaugh…
Will get a real avafantyme the first time a sophisticated health consumer or psychopath-doctor-wannabe asks for a prescription!
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