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Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements

arstechnica.com

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Re: Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements

#181

Post by a3n »

joshuaheard wrote: post #10

I've never understood the logic behind prescription drug ads. The first rule of sales is to pitch the decision maker. You can't buy prescription drugs without a doctor's authorization, so basically the ads are asking people to go beg their doctors for medicine they may, or may not, need. The doctor, in turn, may give in to the patient's emotional pleas, since they are, in effect, in a customer service business. This…

We have these ads for the same reason that bright sugary breakfast cereal is placed on the lower shelves in the grocery store. Children pester their parents for the cereal, and people pester their doctors for Viagra. But the children/people have to know about the product before the pestering can happen.

Re: Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements

#182

Post by ejstronge »

hammock wrote: post #165
nsxwolf wrote: post #93

These ads are one of the main reasons I became a cord cutter. I'm very happy they have not yet followed me onto any of the streaming services I use. They are the creepiest thing ever on television. The actors sit around dinner tables with family members speaking unnatural, FDA manipulated dialog ("Oh, I'm doing great, I've been taking Pradaxa for my afib, not caused by a heart valve problem!") Then you get the unendi…

The irony of wanting to ban Rx drug ads because they are creepy, is that it was regulations that made them creepy to begin with. (You seem aware of this already) There is an argument to be made for consumer advertising for a drug like Viagra. Without awareness that an effective treatment exists, patients with ED or another embarrassing condition are not likely to bring it up with their doctor on their own, thus resul…

That's a confusing argument - how would drugs for a condition come to exist without the existence of a patient population?

Your point is well-taken for individuals who don't fall in epidemiological categories (a 20-something is less likely to be asked about sexual dysfunction than a 60 year-old). Still, questions about sexual function are standard medical history questions.

Education about the availability of drugs can be performed by disease foundations - indeed, disease foundations underwrite the most risky part of drug discovery, the basic research component. For more common disorders, hospitals, the CDC, the NIH and even Google are beginning to provide digestible information that highlight standard treatments. In our web era, the importance of TV advertising for disease education is likely less than it might have been in the 80s.

Re: Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements

#183

Post by jessriedel »

bcoates wrote: post #177
jessriedel wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are vastly more likely to die in a car crash than from a non-abused prescription drug. Furthermore, small cars are significantly more deadly than large ones and trucks. Car companies obscure this by comparing cars to ones "in their class", thereby misleading the consumer into thinking that their high-scoring small car is about as safe as it gets. (I am putting aside opiate abuse, since illegal use is a different…

Trucks? Last I researched this the Ford F150 and Dodge Ram -- popular, mainstream pickup trucks -- were by a large margin statistically among the least safe vehicles allowed on roads in America, compared across everything, not just in-class.

Doesn't really matter to my argument, but for fun: In general, heavier vehicles are vastly safer. If you raise the center-of-gravity off the ground a lot, and don't increase the weight much, it's probably possible to increase the roll-over risk enough to make you worse off.

But if you look at the data, you see that the deadliest vehicles are mostly compacts, and the safest ones are mostly SUVs.

http://www.thecarconnection.com/news/1096667_the-most-deadly...

These differences are huge, like, factor of 100 huge.

Re: Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements

#184

Post by a3n »

phren0logy wrote: post #32

I'm a doctor, and I think this is a good idea. The information provided to both doctors and patients by drug companies is marketing material. The best source of information is peer-reviewed publications, and even those are subject to some bias. Still, that's the best source we have, and should be the primary way all of us get health care information. If you, as a patient, do not understand what the reasearch articles…

That's a great approach.

However ... when I was unemployed, I was very happy that my doctor had free samples from her rep of $DRUG_THAT_KEEPS_ME_ALIVE. Our pediatrician also had free samples for some of the things our kid needed.

Re: Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements

#186

Post by enraged_camel »

tedks wrote: post #162
enraged_camel wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you not aware that 88,000 people die from alcohol-related causes every year in the US and that alcohol is the third leading preventable cause of death? http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohol-health/overview-alcohol-con...

Do you support banning alcohol?

No, but I also don't think people should be free to buy any chemical at will. Alcohol is heavily regulated and still causes massive issues for society.

Re: Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements

#188

Post by sbov »

ksherlock wrote: post #30
tosseraccount wrote: post #11

Can't a free market sort out the problems with drug use?

As it is, there are too many distortions. You don't pay for your drugs, your insurance company does. You don't even pay for your insurance, your employer does. So once a year, maybe, you grumble that your insurance premiums (the part you pay, at least) are going up, then the next day ask your doctor about Scrotium.

Or that the exact same drug may be 1,000 times cheaper in another country but it is illegal for you to buy it there and bring it here.

Re: Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements

#189

Post by MichaelGG »

enraged_camel wrote: post #186
tedks wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you support banning alcohol?

No, but I also don't think people should be free to buy any chemical at will. Alcohol is heavily regulated and still causes massive issues for society.

Alcohol is mostly regulated for taxation, not usage. (To the point of poisoning untaxed alcohol to make sure you get hurt if you sneak around the tax.)

Re: Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements

#190

Post by davak »

Cass wrote: post #123
e40 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Patient goes in and "asks their doctor" about a drug. I wonder if this really ever happens. I mean, for many of the ads, it's hard to tell even what the drug does, so going to your doctor and asking for that med would amount to a random question.

Oh hell yes. The main one peaople ask me about right now is Marcumar/Warfarin, a drug many patients with atrial fibrillation have to take for the entire rest of their life, despite the fact that it has awful side effects and requires them to go to their doctor every two to four week to have a blood test done. Many patients are quite excited to hear that there's now new alternative drugs (NOAKs) that let you skip the…

As an ICU physician, I hate the NOAKs. The data may say that they bleed less. However, when they do bleed, I've got nothing that really reverses the bleeding.

Of course, novel reversal agents are coming and each one will likely only reverse one drug... and each one will cost an arm and a leg.

I understand why patients do it. I just don't like bleeding that I often can't directly control.

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