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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

#191

Post by davak »

dheera wrote: post #168
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…

The unfortunate truth is that a huge number of doctors are downright incompetent, and the healthcare system only allows you to see a limited selection of doctors. So until the system fixes itself, the onus is still on the patient to try to treat themselves.

* Source needed.

Re: Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements

#192

Post by toomuchtodo »

johncolanduoni wrote: post #179
Turbo_hedgehog wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if you allow basically the same ad but disallow mention of any brand names - only the generic name or condition to be treated?

Then we have a tragedy of the commons, where Pfizer and Lilly (the makers of Viagra and Cialis respectively) will wait for the other to create generic ED ads that they will both benefit from.

The solution seems to be public awareness ad campaigns to remove the stigma surrounding talking to your GP about embarrassing conditions, while still outlawing the advertising of specific drugs.

Re: Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements

#193

Post by anonymous30 »

slr555 wrote: post #81

Doctors are very good at keeping tabs on earnings of others but have no limits on the estimates of their own value. We in turned are conditioned to respect doctors as the vessels which carry the whole of healthcare. Nothing could be further from the truth. Talk to a very large percentage of doctors outside the office and you find that money is there bottom line. They're all for tort reform so you can't recover a larg…

Absolutely. US doctors have the highest income in the world. Even our supposedly underpaid GPs have higher salaries than specialists in almost every other country. And the public accepts it, even defends it! Yet our health outcomes aren't any better.

Re: Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements

#194

Post by davak »

See how much money your physician takes from drug companies.

https://www.cms.gov/openpayments/

As a physician I can tell you that this type of public reporting has radically decreased the amount of stuff that doctors take from drug companies.

Removing advertising from the TV will do the same. It is much easier for a physician to give a patient the most correct medication without these biases. Remember that in the US, we spend about 2-3X as much as anybody else for less length and quality of life.

http://qz.com/553181/americans-spend-nearly-three-times-as-m...

Re: Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements

#195

Post by brandonmenc »

ejstronge wrote: post #160
brandonmenc wrote: post #128

Are family doctors able or willing to keep up on the flood of new medicines available, each of which may only apply to a handful of their patients? Aren't drug ads, in a way, a good method for matching medicines to the people who need them? As far as I know, your family physician isn't going to call you when a new drug comes out that better treats your semi-rare, non-fatal condition - and patients aren't going to rea…

I replied to this comment elsewhere: Family doctors are not likely to be treating a semi-rare condition. To put it in programming terms, a front-end web developer would seek advice from a networking expert if her or his application was experiencing a lot of networking difficulties. Further, even if your family physician is monitoring the progress of your disease, you'll likely also be seeing a specialist who will als…

> Family doctors are not likely to be treating a semi-rare condition.

Really?

I have family members with rare conditions - for example diverticul(it/os)is, which affects 0.74% of the population - and they don't see specialists. The family physician monitors it. And this is with a "Cadillac" insurance plan.

I don't think every rare condition automatically gets you in with a specialist.

Re: Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements

#196

Post by c3534l »

I guess I'll be the one to go against the grain here. I've seen a lot of doctors over the years, primarily for mental illness, but my experience has served me well generalizing to normal, physical health. The model of a doctor as a paternal guardian who knows better than you so you should just do as he says is a very bad model. They're as flawed human beings as anyone else and the only person qualified to fight for your best interests is you. Doctors get complacent, lazy and fail to keep up with the latest information unless you press them to do so. You HAVE to stay informed and aware to get the best treatment. Ads can serve an important function of informing patients of new treatment options and if doctors could truely be entrusted with your health without question then there wouldn't be a need to regulate these ads at all since doctors would only be perscribing the best treatments anyway. Medicine works best when it's a two-way, active dialog. In my personal experience anyway.

Re: Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements

#197

Post by kozukumi »

I am from the UK. When I first went to the US in the 90s I was shocked to see adverts on TV for prescription meds. Sure I was used to an ad for some "premium" paracetamol in the UK but drugs to treat depression? nerve pain? Etc.

When I released it was the norm I wasn't surprised the US never established an NHS style system. Way too much money to be lost.

Re: Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements

#198

Post by maerF0x0 »

davak wrote: post #194

See how much money your physician takes from drug companies. https://www.cms.gov/openpayments/ As a physician I can tell you that this type of public reporting has radically decreased the amount of stuff that doctors take from drug companies. Removing advertising from the TV will do the same. It is much easier for a physician to give a patient the most correct medication without these biases. Remember that in the US,…

I would argue the opposite. By creating a separate class of individual that receives information about medicines we obfuscate what the options are. Under the current model a doctor could say "You should take " and I would have little to no exposure to alternatives" .

IMO the real issue is that advertising (not just pharmaceutical) is not very informative anymore, we need a return to fact based ads. No more "sexy" women draped over whatever, no more saccharine smily women glowing after their husband took ... Ads today are propaganda.

Re: Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements

#199

Post by ejstronge »

brandonmenc wrote: post #195
ejstronge wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I replied to this comment elsewhere: Family doctors are not likely to be treating a semi-rare condition. To put it in programming terms, a front-end web developer would seek advice from a networking expert if her or his application was experiencing a lot of networking difficulties. Further, even if your family physician is monitoring the progress of your disease, you'll likely also be seeing a specialist who will als…

> Family doctors are not likely to be treating a semi-rare condition. Really? I have family members with rare conditions - for example diverticul(it/os)is, which affects 0.74% of the population - and they don't see specialists. The family physician monitors it. And this is with a "Cadillac" insurance plan. I don't think every rare condition automatically gets you in with a specialist.

It likely sounds like a rare condition for you and your family members but that particular example happens to be something regularly discussed in first year medical school courses. See [1] for a discussion of how common this is.

Also consider that a family practitioner might easily have 2,000 patients. Thus, she or he will likely have direct experience with diverticulitis.

Further (and this is more inside baseball), your family members would need to be admitted to a hospital if their disease worsens to the point that a standard course of antibiotics won't help.

There might be better examples of 'rare' conditions than this, but the point stands - for any condition where extensive domain knowledge is required, you'll have a specialist involved.

Incidentally, diverticulitis is a very American disorder, likely attributable to our eating habits. You and all other readers should be sure to include fiber in your diet.

[1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2780269/

Re: Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements

#200

Post by MichaelGG »

pdeuchler wrote: post #25
tosseraccount wrote: post #11

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

No, because a free market gives its consumers what they want and even rational people will take opiates over a constructive life

So now you're not only denying people relief if they desire it, but further saying their lives aren't constructive?

Even if that were true, I don't see how overriding personal choice is the correct move.

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