Legal Drug-Pushing: How Disease Mongers Keep Us All Doped Up

[MindMover]

By manipulating our fear of suffering and death, big pharmaceutical companies are able to keep us coming back for expensive medications.

Pharmaceutical giants, like small-town pizza parlors, have two options for making more money: convince regulars to buy more of what they obviously like, or find ways to persuade more people that they will be happier with this drug or that thin crust with extra cheese.

In the case of the drug companies, it's not our taste buds they're appealing to. Instead, they market prescription drugs directly to consumers -- a practice legal only in the United States and New Zealand -- by, basically, manipulating our fear of suffering and death.

These "disease mongers" -- as science writer Lynne Payer in her 1992 book of that name called the drug industry and the doctors, insurers, and others who comprise its unofficial sales force -- spin and toil "to convince essentially well people that they are sick, or slightly sick people that they are very ill."

Changing the metrics for diagnosing a disease is one reliable technique. Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman, associate professor of pharmacology and director of the industry watchdog group PharmedOut.org at Georgetown University School of Medicine, pointed to how the numbers used to diagnose diabetes and high cholesterol have been lowered over time. "The very numbers we use have been reduced to the point of absurdity," she said. "120/70 was considered normal blood pressure; now it's considered 'pre-hypertension.'"

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/04/legal-drug-pushing-how-disease-mongers-keep-us-all-doped-up/255247/

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Anyone with two firing synapses left in there pocket knows this to be right on........

[JDPriestly]

1. For back pain and sciatica, I recommend

physical therapy and the book, Pain Free by Egoscue. Used both. Helped me a lot.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. for sciatica, sleep on the floor

futon style. Mine hasn't flared up all year

[JDPriestly]

5. Yes. That is a good idea. At the least sleep flat on your back.

It took me a while to get used to it, but it has really helped me a lot. Thanks.

I don't want to see people suffer like so many of us have. And if you can catch these things early enough, you can avoid a lot of pain.

[cbrer]

3. Drug Corp. marketing

Has us arriving at our doctors with a perconceived diagnosis in mind, with a cure ready to mention. New "diseases" all the time.

(3 synapses required to know which form of there, their, they're to use?)

[undergroundpanther]

4. buzz marketing on the psych ward

Some of the new psych drugs scare the fuck out of me. The Marketing methods SICKEN me..The testing required on these shiny new drugs is practically a joke..But it's not funny at all..


And yes, I too, was given a sales pitch for fucking invega .For I was in a psych ward...There, much to my shocked revulsion, things had changed in the 15 years since I was in one the last time..The hospital staff was actually promoting big pharma's nasty pills in the guise of "mental health education". And apparently this has been going on for a while.. Please pass me a barf bag..And I bet that bag will be advertising some happy pills on it too.

http://carlatpsychiatry.blogspot.com/2007/08/art-of-pre...

The staff member giving us the pitch was a licensed clinical social worker.. "teaching" this "class" on "mental health education". He was open about how he meets with the pharma reps from time to time,and he told us how they buy him a nice dinner and tell him about new drugs and he gets all their perks .
After he meets with these slime balls in suits,he comes into the ward and "teaches" the patients , some manic, depressed, suicidal, hearing voices, all are generally are suffering, and all are captive audiences required to "go to groups" and scheduled activities because that is the so called "therapy" part of being stuck in the hospital.And for"therapy" we hear about all the "wonderful,safe, and effective, almost effortless "new" drugs.
WTF??!!

As he sweet talked us up with promises of happiness that can only be had in a capsule a day..I smelt a LOT of bullshit.And yes he calls the drugs by brand NAME, repeating it louder,just like a trained seal,performing and appearing to believe in the sales pitches as TRUTH from pharma reps as if it is actually unbiased information. I sat there dumbfounded by all this.

After this vomitile sales pitch I witnessed..Suddenly several other patients announced in this "education group" they wanted to be put on that drug..what was it?? vega? Inveg,?? ASAP.


read the rest..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2952603