Phil McCarron on the insane American practice of advertising prescription drugs straight to the consumer.
EVERY AMERICAN has seen them. They are commercials pitching anti-depressants, impotence pills, birth control pills, and breathing medications. After rattling off a list of the symptoms, explaining how it will make your life immeasurably better, then informing you of all the possible side effects, they kindly instruct you to: “Ask your doctor to prescribe (insert drug here).”
Weirdly enough, this has never made sense to me. It’s become a case of self-diagnosis then writing your own prescription.
PHD middle men
Doctors spend copious amounts of time at medical school learning the ins and outs of the human body. It takes them years of in-depth studying, sitting in on lectures, working on cadavers, and interning at hospitals to learn the correct process to analyse symptoms and produce a correct diagnosis. Yet it would seem that the drug companies have decided to cut out the “PHD middle men” and go straight to direct drug marketing.
Medical role reversal
The system of advertising drugs directly to the consumer works entirely against the principle of prescription drugs. In a crazy role reversal, patients now enter a doctor’s office and tell them the affliction they have and what they need to cure it… all because the polite man on TV told you to.
Is there a marketing man in the house?
Doctors and doctors alone should reserve the right to inform you of prescription drugs, as they are the only ones qualified to do so. Not someone sitting in a corner office at a marketing firm! The direct marketing drugs is creating a nation of hypochondriacs and the power to prescribe should not rest with a man making a TV pitch.
That’s when the wrong approach turns to bad things… and then I have to watch commercials for class action lawsuits against the drug companies.
Phil McCarron, wowdewow American Editor, on consumer culture gone awry.
Do you feel it’s wrong to advertise prescription drugs? Have Doctors lost their clout to the drug companies? Have your say in Readers Comments.
Keep taking the tablets…
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Sometimes individuals are not aware they have a condition or that their condition is treatable. The truth is that many Americans avoid going in for regular check ups. Most of the commercials encourage you to simply talk to your doctor if you think something is up and clearly state that your doctor knows best. I’m sure there is profit to be made from showing the commercials, but there is also some good in it. Maybe someone can fix their sex life, overcome depression, or finally get a good nights sleep. Going to the doctor is a good thing!
Phil McCarron on the insane American practice of advertising prescription drugs straight to the consumer.
Sometimes individuals are not aware they have a condition or that their condition is treatable. The truth is that many Americans avoid going in for regular check ups. Most of the commercials encourage you to simply talk to your doctor if you think something is up and clearly state that your doctor knows best. I’m sure there is profit to be made from showing the commercials, but there is also some good in it. Maybe someone can fix their sex life, overcome depression, or finally get a good nights sleep. Going to the doctor is a good thing!