Drug/Medical Condition Advertising

[booklady]

There has been a WebMD ad on TV over and over again this afternoon about depression. People talk about their "symptoms."

We've been subjected to ED ads at least since my 21-year-old was in kindergarten (he once asked his father, "Dad, do you have ED?" of course without having a clue what is it.)

I heard a quit smoking drug ad today that listed side effects including, "suicidal thoughts and sometimes actions." (I thought that might actually have been from quitting smoking.)

What is your opinion? Is it this drug and medical advertising good or bad?

[booklady]

I detest it and have a theory that it just contributes to people's symptoms, convincing them that they are "sick" and need "medicine" to get better.

[gailkate]

You sound as if you think illness is pyschosomatic. That's a great place to be, because you must be feeling pretty good.

As for the ads, the repetition drives me nuts. Drug companies are pushing people to bug their doctors, and i suspect it works. I even asked my alchemist about one and he said it was 3 times costlier and no more effective than the one I take. (I figured that would be the case, but the ads made me ask )

But I think a lot of people just laugh at the ads, don't they? I mean, would people dream up symptoms they didn't already have? Lunesta and the other sleeping pills don't actually make people decide they're insomniacs, but I suppose they could spur people to ask for a pill if they're already having trouble sleeping. The best thing I found for that was retiring.

[doctork]

The ads are effective, otherwise, pharmas wouldn't spend the money. Many are for expensive brand name drugs for which there are less expensive generics available, as you have found out. This raises costs, and pharmaceutical costs are the most rapidly rising segment of medical expenses.

I think the ads encourage some people to take a pill for a condition that may be better treated by other methods. Insomnia should be approached with "sleep hygiene," as such medications are meant for temporary use, not permanent treatment. Lots of people don't just laugh them off - they come to my office and ask for the Rx. Of course I don't see the people who laugh them off, as they don't go to the doctor about the issue.

Most patients I see these day ask for generics, as their co-pay is much lower. Not to mention the blizzard of paperwork I have to complete for the insurance company if the patient really does need a brand name Rx.

Personally, when one of my prescriptions went to a "Tier 4" co-pay of 25% of the list price, or $800 per month (yes the prescription cost was $3,200 monthly if I paid cash), I just quit taking it. In 2002 when I began that drug, it cost $900 list price per month, and I don't see any reason other than greed that it has more than tripled in price in 7 years.

Although diagnoses like depression are "real," we also have a tendency to medicalize everything in this country, giving rise to the impression that there is a pill to cure everything, and that any time a person is feeling "bad," it is a medical illness that needs a prescription drug to treat it. That is unrealistic, and is a major reason why we spend twice as much per capita on health care in the US, but are in the bottom of health rankings among industrialized nations.

[Jane]

Well, the latest drug advertising I have seen reads like a Saturday Night Live sketch--a pill to negate the tragedy of scanty eyelashes. Yes, indeedy, if you have spent years hiding and ashamed, worried that people are talking about your eyelashes behind your back, now you can come into a new dawn, a new life, a new beginning with Gobbledy Goo. Cure the curse of inadequate lashes (IL) and become the You that You were always meant to be!

[BoatBabe]

Dahhlink just has a fit every time he hears the phrase, "Tell your doctor what medications you are taking, and ask if BlahBlah is right for you."

He thinks any doctor/patient relationship includes the doctor having a chart that tracks perscriptions, and that the ads are convincing people to ask for unnecessary drugs.

Doctors I know talk about the patient expectation of leaving their office with a new pill(s) to fix whatever symptoms are presenting at the moment.

Personally, I think that perscription drug ads should be banned, just like cigarettes and liquor.

[doctork]

IIRC, there has been a legal challenge to the past prohibition on advertising of prescription drugs. Obviously the pharmas won. But in the current round of healthcare reform, I think this may be reconsidered, since Rx ads contribute to the high cost of insurance, and inevitably leads to much higher drug costs as I mentioned above.

And yes, patients "expect" a prescription when they come to the office, unless you can spend a lot of time talking to them about why a drug is not the answer, but some other plan is. Doctors are not paid to talk to patients, (they are paid to do procedures and/or move patients through the office in an assembly line style) and with practice economics demanding you not "waste" more than 10 - 15 minutes per patient.

That is sad. One of the things I liked best about the job in White Sulphur Springs is the relatively low patient load - 12 - 16 patients in 8 hours. I had lots of time to talk with patients and was able to give better care, and cover many problems in one visit, instead of making patients come back repeatedly.