"Doctors and Big Pharma are inventing new symptoms and diseases to match drugs"

[TZ]

A friend of mine I haven't talked to much lately left me a phone message about various things, but this got my attention. He wanted my opinion that Doctors are just making stuff up now for new drugs are "suddenly" on the market for "new diseases". I don't know how to tell my friend that he could almost not have asked me a more dumb and offensive question. We all know that new drug research involves 10-20 years of methodical research and the idea that a drug magically appearing overnight to a brand new disease is complete crap. Are there some conditions where the amount of people who need treatment exaggerated by advertisement? Possibly (bladder control meds have a reputation for being unnecessary sometimes) But ugh. I'm tired of the entire medical research industry being stereotyped as money grubbing amoral nazis. I've never met any biologist who went into this field for money...Its all for other reasons. And to do what he suggests would take a lot of unethical behavior by a LOT of people.
I have not called him back, I'm still stewing over how to be nice in telling him how offensive and stupid that was. Lizerdbits...This is our dancing/landscaping friend BA..:banghead:

[Odin2005]

1. I see that same sentiment constantly on DU.

The same idiots that think ADHD is a made-up disorder and all they need is to be swat with a paddle. :eyes:

[laconicsax]

2. I think every biologist is secretly in it for the money.

Everyone knows that biology is one of the most lucrative fields, with the starting salary for an assistant professor at a state uniersity or community college being in the neighborhood of $376,000 per year.

[lizerdbits]

3. He has chronic back problems doesn't he?

It's not surprising for people who have chronic medical problems and don't get much relief to have opinions like that. 'I don't feel much better, so this whole profession is nothing but a sham.'
I'm sure there are conditions where the number of people who need treatment are exaggerated by advertisement, though I don't look at drug ads, write down their stats and go find data, so maybe I'm wrong.
I went into biology because I liked it (my 10th grade biology teacher wrote on my report card I had a 'natural talent' for it). If I wanted to have a real house instead of a condo in a community with a chronic problem with units being used to sell drugs, I should have gone into another field.

[PVnRT]

4. Correction - Big Pharma MARKETERS are doing that

Even something like Restless Leg Syndrome is a very real (albeit rare) disorder - the people who really need medication for it are those who will kick out suddenly in their sleep hard enough to bruise someone else in bed or pull a muscle. Marketers, however, convince everyone whose legs are a bit itchy at night that THEY MUST HAVE THIS DRUG.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Well, there are things like 'hypoactive sexual desire disorder'

about which there has been quite a lot of controversy - as to whether it's a 'disorder', or just something that happens, and whether drugs are the solution to it even if it is a disorder.

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1939884,00.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/10/08/us-boehringer-flibanserin-idUSTRE6970TN20101008

Flibanserin didn't make it to market, but it does rather look like a search for a problem that they can sell a drug for, because companies made so much money from Viagra.

[TZ]

6. Well

Thats got to be a pretty desperate company that would spend millions of dollars and at LEAST 10 years of research on a phantom disease. Thats why I say this "theory" is completely stupid...The federal govt is CONSTANTLY handing out grants to try to get Orphan disease research going...research on rare diseases. Thats a far far bigger problem than companies "inventing" diseases. 15+ years of research and I've never encountered any research on anything that was even close to being questionable if it exists. Stuff like that shit you post, is exceedingly rare and is more media distortion than anything else. Even the famous "restless leg syndrome" has scientific backing on it as it being a true issue, if not that common.