I'm a grumbly old man despite my age, and am rarely in favour of new laws. That said, I find outlawing prescription drug ads entirely reasonable.
Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements
61–70 of 329 posts
Re: Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the US, the consumer drives a lot of the healthcare decisions. This has positives, as consumers can be more active participants in their health, but can also lead to people shopping for doctors who will prescribe the drugs that they want based on flimsy research and marketing. Additionally, this is a great backdoor way for consumers to be "educated" about conditions they didn't know they had. Consumers then would…
> This has positives, as consumers can be more active participants in their health, but can also lead to people shopping for doctors who will prescribe the drugs that they want based on flimsy research and marketing. Turns out, people suck at being intelligent healthcare consumers. Its not their fault though. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/02/upshot/why-consumers-often... http://www.nber.org/papers/w21160 Disclaimer:…
Demonstrating that consumers have trouble with insurance decisions implies nothing about their ability to make care decisions.
Re: Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements
#63I'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 first rule of sales is to pitch the decision maker.
You may need a prescription from a doctor to get a drug, but that doesn't mean you aren't the decision maker.
After finally getting a proper diagnosis for my condition, doctors began asking me "What typically works for you?" or "What drug do you like/is your preference?" I had a long history of health problems, thus lots of experience with what worked for me. After they gave me a proper diagnosis (and thus quit acting like dismissive assholes), I could walk into a doctor's office and say "I am having Yadda problem. I want (this list of meds) and am open to suggestions as to what else you think might help me." And get it.
Ultimately, I was the decision maker. The doctor's job was, in part, to inform me what my options were. But no one just crammed their medical opinion down my throat, even before I had a proper diagnosis and doctors were routinely being jerks to me and acting like I was some kind of hypochondriac.
Re: Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
One I see in the field as a paramedic? "Any drug allergies?" "Aspirin, Tylenol, Tramadol, etc" "Oh, so you're allergic to 'all' non-narcotic pain medication? That must be ... inconvenient."
How do you respond to such a thing? If a patient is allergic to aspirin, concerned about liver toxicity from APAP, doesn't want stomach issues from NSAIDs, etc.? Do they just have to suffer or do you "give in" and provide them desired relief?
There's certainly a cynicism present in some providers - we're definitely not a perfect bunch, and some areas will have more explicit policy on the use of narcotic pain relief.
For me: I look at physiological symptoms. You tell me you're in 10/10 pain (the "worst of your life"/"worst you could imagine") and you're in no visible distress with normal vital signs, then I'll factor that into the decision.
That being said, I believe it is unethical, immoral to withhold something that could benefit a patient who is in genuine distress, regardless of anything else. For those patients, we have options, too. Fentanyl, for one, is used a lot pre-hospital as it is both an effective analgesic with a short lifetime in the body.
There used to be (probably still is) doctors in the ED who don't want a patient to come in with pain meds onboard because they want to see a "baseline presentation". Again, I think this falls into the realm of poor provider care. We have diagnostic tools for objective analysis, and having a patient in pain just so we can measure it is inhumane.
Bottom line: if a patient requires pain medication, they will get it from me, subject to analysis of circumstances. In your example above, if it's not "drug seeking" but concerns about side effects, then the patient and I can have a discussion about benefits versus risks (the flip side to that being if a patient has a broken femur, for example, that conversation is likely to be limited to 'give me the damn drug!").
Re: Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements
#65I'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…
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. FWIW, I asked my GP about this when I went in for a physical recently. He said he really doesn't get patients coming in asking for specific drugs in response to TV ads, and said he doesn't think it is an issue. Of course that's just one anecdote, bu…
Though the majority of AMA members voted for it.
Re: Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements
#66I'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…
Not everyone thinks that the health problem they're having is treatable - an ad can let someone know that there is a drug for condition X, prompting a trip to the doctor that would otherwise not happen.
Re: Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements
#67Over and over people on HN come to the defense of advertising. Doctors tend to be Republican and free-market adherents. So why would they be against drug advertising?
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!" - Upton Sinclair
Re: Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
because a free market gives its consumers what they want and even rational people will take opiates over a constructive life And? If that's their preference who are you (or I, etc.) to say otherwise?
See: tragedy of the commons, positive externalities, etc. etc. Even the most staunch libertarian has to agree that personal choices which negatively effect society must have some sort of curtailing policy to make whole those effected
Imma thinkin a "staunch libertarian" would be okay with not regulating advertising and letting people pop pills.
Re: Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
Disturbingly easy to get class II drugs without any proof of need.
This is a good thing in one way. People should be free to buy chemicals at will. The disturbing part is that it's a forced tax paid to doctors to get RX's written each month. Even worse, this further kills equality. A worker desiring to boost performance can easily afford top-notch medicines -- speed's only $20 a month for a starting dose at a pharmacy. But the prescription alone can be 10x that, and sometimes may be…
> People should be free to buy chemicals at will.
this would introduce a myriad of acute public health issues and do great harm to the public good, costing taxpayers billions of dollars for remediation.
Edit: the DHHS's report on prescription medication abuse is good reading in this area: http://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/pdf/hhs_prescription_drug_ab...
Re: Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
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There is that. It is interesting to see how television in particular seems to have lost a lot of advertising diversity, excluding advertising for other shows on the same network, these days just drugs, cars, lawyers, and pay-to-play games, with the occasional movie trailer for good measure. Bad news for television networks.
Yeah - to the point that I can't stand it. I can't even watch football anymore. I generally end up muting the commercials and forgetting to check back when they're over.