Denver-Mall.Com
Press Release : Article : Prescription Drugs : Denver Colorado
The Magazine
Prescription Drug costs in Denver
The Pharmaceutical Rant -
Filed by Bev Saidel, June 2004
Okay, I admit it - I rarely watch commercial television. It's not because most of the shows are ridiculous reality shows that do not capture my attention. It's not because I am an elitist. It's just that there is rarely anything that captures my fancy. That said, I should mention that I am a "nut" for movies. But when it comes to network television I just don't spend the time.
Recently I must admit that I have "tuned in" to network tv and what I have seen has really been thought provoking. Unfortunately it's not the actual program that has me thinking, it's the number of pharmaceutical ads. Am I the only one who has noticed that almost every other ad, during every single commercial break is for some prescription drug or the other? Am I the only one who is disturbed by all this? It appears that we are becoming a nation of people that can't survive without drugs. Are we so ill as a nation that our bathroom shelves need to be lined with this or that prescription that you are now being prompted to "ask your doctor" for?
Now don't get me wrong. I do believe that prescription drugs are necessary for a great many people. But why is it suddenly okay for pharmaceutical companies to be "hawking" their products everywhere we look? Don't these companies already spend millions of dollars whining and dining physicians so that those doctors will prescribe their company's medications?
And help me with this one… isn't it the job of my physician to prescribe what I need for the particular condition or problem that I have? Shouldn't he or she be the one to tell me what I need to insure my overall health? I know it is my responsibility to be "in tune" with my body and that it is my responsibility to eat properly and exercise regularly. But all of this advertising makes me wonder why I need to see advertising for medications that my doctor should already know about and prescribe to help me with high blood pressure or acid reflux or depression? Isn't that what I pay my doctor to do? Why do I need some multi-million, mega company advertising these products via television and magazines? Doesn't that simply provide the opportunity for confusion and hypochondria among the masses?
Thanks to this flagrant advertising, I now know how to deal with arthritis via Vioxx, that Singulair helps with allergies, Lamisil is the drug of choice for toenail fungus, AdVair for asthma, and Zoloft for depression, which I now might need to get me through all this! I also now know more about the side effects of these medications (which would make any sane person not want to take these meds) and what I should lookout for should I be taking some other medication for some unpronounceable disease that I have never heard of.
Wouldn't we as a population be better served by less drug advertising? Isn't there a campaign in this country to "just say no" to drugs? Shouldn't that that message include medications prescribed by a doctor? Looking at the number of medications that are prescribed as children and continued throughout our lives, aren't we in danger of becoming a nation whose people are over medicated? (Judy Garland and Elvis come to mind.) Have we come to the time when our personal status is determined by the number of prescription drugs lining our bathroom shelves?
We have heard a lot of "talk" from Congress on how to deal with the cost of medications for seniors and the gravely ill. But very little action is being taken. We have all heard stories about people who have had to make a decision on whether to buy food or pay the rent or purchase their monthly medications. And we have all heard stories about how many AIDS patients went "on the dole" so that they could be provided with the medication that they could not otherwise afford. Did we suddenly decide as Americans that it's okay for these companies to profit on the suffering of millions of Americans? If you study the stock market it's not to hard to see which companies are making money… many are pharmaceutical companies.
The United States is the wealthiest nation in the world. Isn't it time we got on board with a plan that could save everyone millions? Is it that tough to figure out that pharmaceutical advertising, at its current level, is redundant and costly to everyone?
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