Jump to content

CNN article on How prescription drugs are marketed to people that don't need


[ch...]

Recommended Posts

This article explains the fraud in legal drugs. This is a must read.

 

This a CNN article just posted today. Oct. 11th, 2010

(CNN) -- If you want to understand the way prescription drugs are marketed today, have a look at the 1928 book, "Propaganda," by Edward Bernays, the father of public relations in America.

 

For Bernays, the public relations business was less about selling things than about creating the conditions for things to sell themselves. When Bernays was working as a salesman for Mozart pianos, for example, he did not simply place advertisements for pianos in newspapers. That would have been too obvious.

 

Instead, Bernays persuaded reporters to write about a new trend: Sophisticated people were putting aside a special room in the home for playing music. Once a person had a music room, Bernays believed, he would naturally think of buying a piano. As Bernays wrote, "It will come to him as his own idea."

 

Just as Bernays sold pianos by selling the music room, pharmaceutical marketers now sell drugs by selling the diseases that they treat. The buzzword is "disease branding."

 

To brand a disease is to shape its public perception in order to make it more palatable to potential patients. Panic disorder, reflux disease, erectile dysfunction, restless legs syndrome, bipolar disorder, overactive bladder, ADHD, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, even clinical depression: All these conditions were once regarded as rare until a marketing campaign transformed the brand.

 

Once a branded disease has achieved a degree of cultural legitimacy, there is no need to convince anyone that a drug to treat it is necessary. It will come to him as his own idea.

 

Disease branding works especially well for two kinds of conditions. The first is the shameful condition that can be destigmatized. For instance, when Pharmacia launched Detrol in the late 1990s, the condition the drug treated was known to doctors as "urge incontinence." Patients called it "accidentally peeing in my pants" and were embarrassed to bring it up with their physicians.

 

Pharmacia fixed the problem by rebranding the condition as "overactive bladder." Whereas "incontinence" suggested weakness and was associated mainly with elderly women, the phrase "overactive bladder" evoked a supercharged organ frantically working overtime.

 

To qualify for a diagnosis of "overactive bladder," patients did not actually have to lose bladder control." They simply needed to go to the bathroom a lot.

 

The vice president of Pharmacia, Neil Wolf, explained the branding strategy in a 2002 presentation called "Positioning Detrol: Creating a Disease." By creating the disease of "overactive bladder," Wolf claimed, Pharmacia created a market of 21 million potential patients.

 

Another good candidate for branding is a condition that can be plausibly portrayed as under-diagnosed. Branding such a condition assures potential patients that they are part of a large and credible community of sufferers. For example, in 1999, the FDA approved the antidepressant Paxil for the treatment of "social anxiety disorder," a condition previously known as "shyness."

 

In order to convince shy people they had social anxiety disorder, GlaxoSmithKline, the maker of Paxil, hired a PR firm called Cohn and Wolfe. Cohn and Wolfe put together a public awareness campaign called "Imagine being allergic to people," which was allegedly sponsored by a group called the "Social Anxiety Disorders Coalition."

 

GlaxoSmithKline also recruited celebrities like Ricky Williams, the NFL running back, and paid them to give interviews to the press about their own social anxiety disorder. Finally, they hired academic psychiatrists working on social anxiety disorder and sent them out on the lecture circuit in the top 25 media markets.

 

The results were remarkable. In the two years before Paxil was approved for social anxiety, there were only about 50 references to social anxiety disorder in the press. But in 1999, during the PR campaign, there were over a billion references.

 

Within two years Paxil had become the seventh most profitable drug in America, and Cohn and Wolfe had picked up an award for the best PR campaign of 1999. Today, social anxiety disorder, far from being rare, is often described as the third most common mental illness in the world.

 

It is hard to brand a disease without the help of physicians, of course. So drug companies typically recruit academic "thought leaders" to write and speak about any new conditions they are trying to introduce. It also helps if the physicians believe the branded condition is dangerous.

 

When AstraZeneca introduced Prilosec (and later Nexium) for heartburn, for example, it famously repositioned heartburn as "gastroesophageal reflux disease," or GERD. But it also commissioned research to demonstrate the devastating consequences of failing to treat it.

 

If all drugs were harmless, disease branding would be relatively harmless, too. But no drug is completely benign.

 

For example, Detrol can make elderly people delirious and may cause memory problems. Paxil is associated with sexual dysfunction and dependence. It also carries a black-box warning for suicide in children and adolescents. Side effects like these are a part of every drug. But they are never part of the brand.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Chris for posting that - it is sickening - all about greed - no one cares about the people.  We have to be on guard at all times.......

Hoping2BFree

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Really scary. I have felt this way for a while. I can't tell if I am seeing more of this stuff because I am dealing with it on a daily basis or because it is becoming more and more well known. Maybe a little bit of both. So hard to see the "machine" until you are not in it anymore.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Chris,

 

I went to dinner with friends tonight and this article was the subject of some lively discussion.  Thanks for the indigestion!  :laugh:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Social anxiety disorder is a real disorder, not "shyness." And it has existed since well before Paxil was ever invented.

 

Social anxiety disorder is also known as social phobia. Surely all of us know what a phobia is. It's not just being a little bashful. It's flat out panic brought about by being involved in social situations.

 

They were really reaching for a psychological example here. They should have stuck with physiological ones rather than show their ignorance, and make those who are aware doubtful of the report itself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Social anxiety disorder is a real disorder, not "shyness." And it has existed since well before Paxil was ever invented.

 

Social anxiety disorder is also known as social phobia. Surely all of us know what a phobia is. It's not just being a little bashful. It's flat out panic brought about by being involved in social situations.

 

They were really reaching for a psychological example here. They should have stuck with physiological ones rather than show their ignorance, and make those who are aware doubtful of the report itself.

 

Are you a Dr or psychologist ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No--I could never take that level of stress, even when I was relatively well.

 

But I was diagnosed with social anxiety disorder from before Paxil was even released stateside. And it is definitely different from shyness. Especially my kind: I could go up to anyone and talk to them--I freaked out more as I got to know people, and their opinions started to matter more to me.

 

I've also met a lot of people with social anxiety disorder who got panic attacks trying to talk to someone new. I wouldn't call that merely shyness. Would you?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think people usually have a lot more going on then meets the eye like,  eating too much sugar, processed foods, and drinking too much caffeine. All of witch rev up the CNS. Also malnutrition and exercise as well as not knowing how to handle stress. If you look at the majority of Americans alone and their eating habits and lifestyle choices combined with medications then you have a recipe for disaster. However, Dr's don't treat people as a whole they just treat symptoms for the most part and don't address diet and exercise.

 

I am only suggesting that there is much more to a person than what most Dr's take into account when diagnosing someone with a disorder or disease. Most people have some kind of disharmony in there body that can be treated or addressed naturally instead of covered up or numbed by a simple diagnosis or category. I found out on my own that sugar, caffeine, processed foods, and meds have been making me sick for years but most people will go through life not investigating what makes them sick. They will just listen to there Dr's and ignore what there bodies are telling them without challenging what the media, Dr's, or popular belief is while keeping themselves sick and miserable.

 

 

I am no Dr but after this experience and after all the reading and investigating I have done I have found more truth by questioning a diagnosis and finding out for myself than I ever would have by listening to Dr's and there quick assumptions and money driven tendencies.

 

Not all Dr's are bad or incompetent I understand but most of them are pro-medication and only get a very short course in nutrition,diet,and exercise.

 

Psychiatry alone isn't based on real diseases. Most of these so called "disorders" that psychiatry came up with didn't exist 20 years. They have been manufactured or exaggerated far passed what is true for purposes of profit only. So that being said, I do not trust one diagnosis from the psychiatric community.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
[d9...]

I'm not going to say there ARE NO SUCH THINGS AS PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDER!!!

Because there is!

I, for one have lived with Schizophrenia for years.. even before I took a Benzo, A/D, A/P or anything!

I've seen a Psychological illness bring one to their knees and degenerate them! I, for one have been there and done that!

I do believe there are panic and anxiety disorders.. just as much as I believe there are other ailments on the physical side ..

Sorry but after what I have been through at the age of 12 and everything else.. I'm not going to say there's no such thing as a Psychological disorder..because there certainly is.

If I threw down my Risperdal right now, I bet by the end of the week I would be in a hospital somewhere because I can't be controlled without it really, plus it takes years of therapy to dissolve what I have, if they even can..

I have got to the point of being incoherent and catatonic, guess It's nothing.

You think w/d is bad..  slip into psychosis.. it's a nightmare not to be able to tell reality from unreality.. and it's permanent with Schizophrenia, it doesn't go away without being controlled, and yes with my disorder..I have anxiety and panic, I'm not being rude but yes Mental Illness is very real.

Nutrition and Diet cannot cure Schizophrenia.. I wish it could..

Keryn.

 

Edit-

And I'm in no way saying I'm Pro-Benzo because I'm not..

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[d9...]

No--I could never take that level of stress, even when I was relatively well.

 

But I was diagnosed with social anxiety disorder from before Paxil was even released stateside. And it is definitely different from shyness. Especially my kind: I could go up to anyone and talk to them--I freaked out more as I got to know people, and their opinions started to matter more to me.

 

I've also met a lot of people with social anxiety disorder who got panic attacks trying to talk to someone new. I wouldn't call that merely shyness. Would you?

 

I was diagnosed with Schizophrenia well before any medications.. so I know where you're coming from.

See with Schizophrenia it is not just one diagnosis itself as I have been told.. I have PTSD, Bipolar, Anxiety Disorder, Paranoia Spectrum, Delusions, and other disorder's with it.. including a "DID Spectrum" with it.. It's hard living with it.. if not medicated.

It runs in my family.. everyone of my Grandmother's side of the family has it, my father has it. It's hard to deal with at times even with medication.

 

Keryn.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[d9...]

So Sorry to hear that sweetie, I hope your dng well .

 

Love Laura

xoxoxoxo :smitten:

 

Thanks Laura.

I hope you start feeling better soon.. xoxo

It's just something I have to cope with, but it can be done.

 

Keryn.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry Pam , I thought it was a good article to reinforce why we shouldn't take benzos or be on them , I wasn't thinking abt the negative side , I removed the link.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Laura, but since I quoted your link I guess we'll keep it up for others to see.  It's just so hard to keep people hopeful around here, I got a little carried away in my remarks to you.  :-[  I know now that you meant it as a warning, not as a scare tactic.  :)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you Pam, that was my only intention hun truly, I wouldn't want to fear anyone including myself . I am not gng to repost it , I believe although my intentions were in the right place but everyones reaction to it can be very scarey, but theres still no proof off any permanent damage its still a theory . Thank you

 

Love Laura

xoxoxoxo

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Joining this conversation late ...

 

Trikly, I don't doubt that social anxiety disorder is real. However, I'm certain there are people labelled with it (and being medicated for it) who don't really have it.

 

Pamster, when I read the article in The Independent, I didn't get too hung up on the "brain damage" aspect of it. I tend to think of what's wrong with me as "temporary CNS damage." Rather, I'm thrilled that the Big Pharma criminals may actually have been caught hiding evidence. I'd love to see a successful class action lawsuit get off the ground as a result of their sweeping this under the rug.

 

I do understand that, as freaked out as some of us are (myself included, being as I'm in the midst of a nasty wave and feeling like I might NEVER heal), that there might be a such thing as too much truth or unnecessarily scary wording. I could wish they'd chosen to focus on the scandal aspect more than the as-yet-unproven-by-any-studies "brain damage." Though perhaps the scary wording of the article may have spared a new victim or two; folks who were just about to start taking a benzo until they opened their morning paper that day.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[d9...]
I tend to think of what's wrong with me as "temporary CNS damage."

 

That's the way I see it too, I do not believe Benzo's cause Brain Damage.. too many ppl have been on them, if that was the case, statistically.. the range of all the millions that have been on them.. we'd all be damaged.. It is what it is withdrawal.. once it's over, we heal and go on..

Not that it's easy, but that's just it.. I really don't get in to much of how or what causes this and that in the Anatomy of it.. it only makes symptom's worse .. I think.. I see it as an awakening of your old self returning and well.. that's what it is.. underlined, but in w/d unaware.

 

Keryn.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...