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thatcrazycajunA study coming out today done recently by Consumers Union, the folks who publish Consumer Reports magazine, confirms what Your Humble Correspondent has been saying for years: that the deluge of TV and radio ads for brand-name prescription medicines over the past decade or so is influencing people to substitute their own (usually ill-informed) judgment for that of their doctors, to their financial and physical detriment. Our local paper reports on the study and its own follow-up with local physicians and their patients here.
The CU people conclude that serious re-regulation of pharmaceutical advertising is needed to rein in this practice, and I heartily concur. Aside from the annoyance of numerous and repeated drug ads in my TV shows, I am concerned that people are being duped into thinking they have diseases needing drug treatment when in fact this may not be the case at all, or into asking their doctor for the wrong drug when a safer, cheaper alternative (or several) may be available. Drug makers should not be allowed to use the people's airwaves to risk the people's health and solvency for the sake of goosing their own bottom line.
The CU people conclude that serious re-regulation of pharmaceutical advertising is needed to rein in this practice, and I heartily concur. Aside from the annoyance of numerous and repeated drug ads in my TV shows, I am concerned that people are being duped into thinking they have diseases needing drug treatment when in fact this may not be the case at all, or into asking their doctor for the wrong drug when a safer, cheaper alternative (or several) may be available. Drug makers should not be allowed to use the people's airwaves to risk the people's health and solvency for the sake of goosing their own bottom line.
