Drugs companies 'inventing diseases to boost their profits'

[kevinmc]

Times, UK

PHARMACEUTICAL companies are systematically creating diseases in order to sell more of their products, turning healthy people into patients and placing many at risk of harm, a special edition of a leading medical journal claims today.

The practice of “diseasemongering” by the drug industry is promoting non-existent illnesses or exaggerating minor ones for the sake of profits, according to a set of essays published by the open-access journal Public Library of Science Medicine.

The special issue, edited by David Henry, of Newcastle University in Australia, and Ray Moynihan, an Australian journalist, reports that conditions such as female sexual dysfunction, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and “restless legs syndrome” have been promoted by companies hoping to sell more of their drugs.

Other minor problems that are a normal part of life, such as symptoms of the menopause, are also becoming increasingly “medicalised”, while risk factors such as high cholesterol levels or osteoporosis are being presented as diseases in their own right, according to the editors.

“Disease-mongering turns healthy people into patients, wastes precious resources and causes iatrogenic (medically induced) harm,” they say. “Like the marketing strategies that drive it, disease-mongering poses a global challenge to those interested in public health, demanding in turn a global response.”........

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2128371,00.html

[Brigid]

1. Here's an Idea . . .

How about we ban those stupid TV ads for prescription drugs? :think:

[PA Democrat]

12. Yes, considering that the US is only one of two countries who permit

direct consumer marketing of drugs. Gee, the obscene amount of money that the US pharmaceutical industry spends on all those commercials wouldn't by any chance have anything to do with the exorbitant cost of drugs here compared to other countries?

BTW, welcome to DU Brigid!

[REP]

2. Why is Female Sexual Dysfunction "Imaginary" But Male Dysfunction "Real"?

Just because male sexual dysfunction is more visually apparent?

In general, I agree - there's a lot of made up diseases or reclassification of things that didn't use to be diseases that now need heavy doses of medicine, but saying that sexual dysfunction in women must be made up is just a bit Victorian.

[BiggJawn]

8. It's very real.

IMO, that Urban Legend about women becoming sex maniacs after menopause because they can't get preggers anymore is the "imaginary" thing.

[Daphne08]

3. My husband and I joke about the "restless leg syndrome"

all the time and think it's hilarious. (Back in the old days, we used to call it being tired.)

[caligirl]

4. Big pharma is sure good at making this sh*t up. But hey Americans

believed the Bush propaganda so why is anyone surprised by this.

[Oeditpus Rex]

5. Social Anxiety Disorder

i.e. shyness.

Here's your pill.

[ClintonTyree]

6. In my day....

we self medicated for that condition. Alcohol and Cocaine was all it took. Being wired to the teeth has a way of making you less self-conscious. Not necessarily more coherent, but certainly more outgoing. ;)

[Hubert Flottz]

7. I never inhaled!

And I smoked for almost 40 years!

[BiggJawn]

9. Sure did.

Coincidence that I became reclusive after I stopped drinking?
What's the name of that pill?

[zbdent]

10. latest "disease" - excess sweating

now the "epidemic" which would require Botox . . . :eyes:

[OzarkDem]

11. Osteoporosis & ADHD?

Those are real conditions that, for many people, require some treatment.