Seven Diseases Big Pharma Hopes You Get in 2012

[marmar]

AlterNet / By Martha Rosenberg

Seven Diseases Big Pharma Hopes You Get in 2012
Supply-driven marketing not only turns the nation into pill-popping hypochondriacs, it distracts from Pharma's drought of real drugs for real medical problems.

December 6, 2011 |


It used to be joked that a consultant is someone who borrows your watch to tell you what time it is. These days, the opportunist is Big Pharma, which raises your insurance premiums and taxes while providing you "low-priced" drugs that you paid for.

How did Pharma get a good third of the United States taking antidepressants, statins, and Purple Pills, albeit at low prices? By selling the diseases of depression, high cholesterol, and gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD. Supply-driven marketing, also known as "Have Drug — Need Disease and Patients," not only turns the nation into pill-popping hypochondriacs, it distracts from Pharma's drought of real drugs for real medical problems.

Of course, not all diseases are Wall Street pleasers. To be a true blockbuster disease, a condition must (1) really exist but have huge diagnostic "wiggle room" and no clear-cut test, (2) be potentially serious with "silent symptoms" said to "only get worse" if untreated, (3) be "underrecognized," "underreported" with "barriers" to treatment, (4) explain hitherto vague health problems a patient has had, (5) have a catchy name — ED, ADHD, RLS, Low T or IBS — and instant medical identity, and (6) need an expensive new drug that has no generic equivalent. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/story/153332/seven_diseases_big_pharma_hopes_you_get_in_2012/

[SpiralHawk]

1. I'm getting Spontaneous Spew Syndrome

when I think of Big Pharma (R) and it's poisoning of Americans

[rpannier]

2. You have SSS

There's a pill on the market now for that.
It has numerous side effects, but you'll be happy they have pills, cremes and tonics to fix the 26 side effects of that medicine

[AllyCat]

3. I can't believe the number of people I know that have two or more of these

"diseases" are taking meds, and just not getting any better. Watching the spiral people go down as they try to treat these roving set of symptoms is maddening: Drug companies getting rich, people not getting any better, and the treatment making them sicker with other real and roving problems.

[socialindependocrat]

4. My diabetes costs

I have diabetes 2

I went to a Dr. who "gave" me a meter that requires a drum for the strips.

The strips cost $50 for 6 drums = 102 strips

They want you to test 4 times a day = $2 / day

Then I get Niacin for cholesterol $50 and the diabetes drug $100 for 3 months

And when I got for a checkup he charges $325 for which he asks if
I have any problems, checks my feet and gives me new scripts = 10 minutes

The test strips must cost 2 cents each to make
and
Why is the checkup so expensive and why can't my primary care physician
do my checkups and send me to the specialist if there is a problem?

These costs aren't as bad as some of the biggies still it is one more example
of being ripped off and adding to health care costs.

[meow2u3]

5. I was diagnosed with adult ADHD when I was 27

I was born with the condition, the hyperactive type more typically seen in boys and men. It's absolute hell being a woman unable to control my emotions, positive or negative; pay attention to details required to fulfill my role in society; and perform the simplest tasks most people take for granted as part of being an adult, especially a woman. Looking back, this condition cost me a boyfriend--the biggest heartbreak I ever felt, friends who thought I was intentionally embarrassing them, and even a potential career. Don't tell me ADHD is an invented condition--it really interferes with daily life to the point of ending up lonely.

I've been taking Ritalin (or its generic equivalent) for 24 years and not only do I not suffer serious side effects, apart from a slight elevation in blood pressure, I feel more relaxed and I don't get high from the meds. My doctor tried me on Adderall and Concerta and it was a disaster! Adderall made me jumpy, caused my heart to race, and caused insomnia, and Concerta made me irritable and messed with my appetite.

[Dont call me Shirley]

6. Big Pharma and Big Medical Care love bioweapons.

[RufusTFirefly]

7. Sometimes Big Pharma creates syndromes. Other times they expand the scope of legitimate problems

What's amazing is how effective they are at convincing people that they suddenly need medication.
The beauty of the market at work.

Former New England Journal of Medicine Editor in Chief Marcia Angell has done a wonderful job of exposing these tactics.

Again, in some instances these medications may actually be necessary. But in many, many cases Big Pharma has fabricated a need out of whole cloth.

Telling someone that s/he has been duped in such situations is about as welcome as revealing a story that "really happened" to a friend of a friend to be an urban legend. It makes people angry and defensive.

[Lucky Luciano]

8. one word: Fibromyalgia