Pharmaceutical Advertising Makes Us Sick

[yellowwoodII]

Why would you have to ask your doctor "if ___ is right for you?"

He's a DOCTOR! He knows what kind of medication you need or if you don't need ANY!! Are doctors being pressured into prescribing unneeded drugs just to appease persistent patients?

Ads add to the cost of drugs that people need, when they do.

All drugs have side effects. Some drugs require other drugs to alleviate the side effects.

Not to mention the consequences of the opioid epidemic.

These ads should be no more legal than tobacco ads.

[agingdem]

1. I was flipping through an old magazine

and most of the ads were for meds..hypertension, diabetes, allergies, asthma, arthritis, etc...and it occurred to me that most of those meds had been pulled off the market..I pay close attention to side effects...cancer, stroke, heart attack, death...so the meds are supposed cure me before they kill me...no thank you..

[Ron Obvious]

2. Only legal in the US and NZ last time I checked.

Agreed. This sort of advertisement only increases medical costs and provides no benefit to the public. Banning these advertisements should be part of the complete overhaul of the medical system we so badly need.

[HAB911]

3. I wish they would plow the ad dollars

back into lowering the cost of the drugs in the first place

[RKP5637]

4. K&R!!! n/t

[brewens]

5. I wonder if there is a reverse placebo effect. Someone is convinced by advertising and or friends

some medication is just what they need for a condition they may or may not have. They go to their doctor to ask for it. So if their doctor does not agree and recommends something else, they may not be happy about that and not give it a chance. I'd say especially if the doctor recommended diet and exercise, rather than just taking a pill.

How about how much the drug, medical device and disability aid corporations take up in TV advertising? I bet that prices some other businesses out of the market. I'm 100 miles from Spokane, WA and get their local stations. I was watching a Gonzaga basketball game and it was almost all medical ads. This Gamma Knife outfit especially. The same spots used to be bought up by other local businesses.

You hear RWer's going off on people wanting free stuff. The kings and queens of free stuff are seniors with medical conditions and disabilities. You don't have to watch very long to see one of those, "at no cost to you" and "we bill Medicare" or whatever commercials. Power chairs, stair lifts, oxygen machines, you name it.

I'd say ban all that crap and let people rely on their doctors to decide what they need and when it's time for some of the aids.

[yellowwoodII]

7. Good Point

Yes, imagine suggesting that one might try to improve diet and add exercise. Just take a pill! It cures everything.

I notice the news in the current pandemic barely mentions that fact that an unhealthy lifestyle increases the deadliness of the virus.

Remember when Michelle Obama tried to improve school lunch choices? Ah, yes, that was back in the good old days.

[Sherman A1]

6. But how else are we to pay for

The Cable Noise Infotainment Media? Something has to fill airtime between ads for drugs we never knew we needed.

[jls4561]

8. So I watching a news channel and an ad for a new drug came on....

Are your legs falling asleep? Do you get random spasms in your lower limbs?

I thought, "Well, yeah, that is happening right now. Maybe I have whatever syndrome you are speaking of and maybe I should see a doctor. Something might be wrong."

Then I moved the cat off my lap and the symptoms clear right up.

This was several years ago and I can't remember the name of the syndrome or the pharmaceutical.

[Chainfire]

9. They advertise them so you will hound your doctor to prescribe

If they are advertising, they probably also have a doctor's incentive program going on. Hey, come to our conference in Hawaii, we pay!

If the Med requires a script, it should not be advertised on TV.

[yellowwoodII]

10. Dollars for Doc

You can look up your doctor's name on here. See if he is on the take:
ProPublica:
https://projects.propublica.org/docdollars/