Why thank you very much. I'll take my allergies, insomnia and erectile dysfunction. Not that I have any of those. It's only 1:23 a.m. and I'm writing a scheduled blog post to cover a ridiculous situation I got myself into: blogging about "big" everyday for one month But seriously...
I've just heard 4 commercials for prescription medications in less than 40 minutes.
Here's a small example: "In patients with depression, Lunesta may result in increased depression and increased risk of suicide." Let's see...get a decent night's sleep or kill yourself? I guess if you aren't getting your z's, you could actually want to die. Looks like either way, you're headed down the road of wanting to end your life.
Love the commercials for a medication treating something so minor that you could actually live with relatively inconvenienced, but the pills themselves can result in increased risk of heart attack, stroke, bleeding from your irises, the Ebola virus, swine flu, wanting to eat your own fingernails, etc. Crazy.
Now what about the side effects that worsen the issues that the medications are supposedly treating? "Pristique can increase suicidal thoughts and behavior" in certain individuals. It's a freaking depression medication!!!
When I was experiencing severe issues with vertigo, a potential side effect of all the suggested medications was dizziness. Nice.
My personal favorite is the ED medication commercial that loudly points out (during prime time tv, I might add) "if you have an erection lasting more than 4 hours, seek immediate medical attention..." or something to that effect. Well no crap.
First of all, thank you very much for making it even more difficult to watch tv with a 13 year old. When I was his age, all I had to worry about was a commercial for tampons coming on. And secondly, I just can't imagine it would be too terribly comfortable walking into the hospital with an obvious, um... Just fill in the blank.
Now totally seriously: I really don't think we need commercials about prescription medications innundating us from all fronts, except for the obvious funny-value. The pharmaceutical companies are already crossing the line in our doctor's offices. Isn't that enough?
13 comments:
Cases of priapism presenting to the emergency department of big hospitals is more common than you'd think
I agree with you... prescription medications should bot be advertised to the public. The target audience are the doctors and not us. Let the doctors prescribe what we need. xoxo
I miss the days when, after 11 PM, all stations would go off the air. It was a better use of bandwidth.
These commercials should absolutely be outlawed. People start self-diagnosing and pressuring doctors for these meds that they might not even need. Doctors are pressured by the drug company sales people. It's bad, bad, bad all around.
What!!!! You have erctile disfunction!
one of my former colleagues, a pharmacist, occasionally accepted an invitation to lunch with the pharma reps if the entire group attended and it was under the guise of an "educational event." It was always a 4-5 course affair at the swankiest place imaginable. Big expense accounts.
Oh, here's a BIG news item - fabulous value at the Dillard's outlet store today - all open stock china 99 cents per piece. Yay! That doesn't happen every day.
Grossness: ew. I'm so over drug companies putting crap warnings about side effects in their warnings which are there primarily to cover themselves against those who spring a lawsuit on them when the stuff doesn't work as prescribed. Now what kind of effective placebo effect can a drug have when it warns you in advance that it mayn't work! Dodg-eeee.
Oh yes, you've got it right on the money. Drives me crazy all these commercials for medications. Must drive the doctors right up the wall with the patients showing up after self-diagnosing themselves based on a 30 second commercial.
Enough already!
For us it's a damnable annoyance. For MD's it's a nightmare. I recently talked to a physician who told me how tough this crap advertising is making his life. People come in telling him they have such and such a condition and want him to prescribe drug X that they saw on TV.
First of all even physicians don't diagnose themselves because one can't be objective enough. So think how dumb it is for a lay person to self diagnose.
This physician also told me that there's often no way for some of these patients to have the condition they claim to have,But they insist on having drug X and he has to spend a lot of valuable time explaining to them why he won't prescribe it.Some leave in anger
to look for a "better" physician
Pharmaceutical companies often come up with a new molecule and then fish around to find a use for it. Like Rogaine for example. It was developed to be a cardiovascular drug but it didn't work very well. So it became a hair growth stimulator for those with male pattern baldness. Logical? At least that history explains why it carries a warning about possible cardiac effects.
You know what it's all about don't you? The need to make lots of money has superceded just about all of our other societal values.Inducing fear seems to be the most accepted and effective tool for promoting everything from life insurance to beer.
So join me in changing channels or muting the sound when those annoying drug ads come on.
My allergy medicine does cause my insomnia! I agree, too many prescription drug commercials on TV. The ED commercials always elicit laughs in my house too. Comments I won't dare to write on your blog.
Those commercials are so annoying. Seriously, how much patronage have they recieved due to commercials?Unless you count the countless people who get depressed from watching these commercials!!!!
Nice story.....You do have a way with words. :) I do not take any medication, unless I am REALLY sick and in the hospital! Even then, I get off of them ASAP. I have a lot of allergic reactions to medicine. Hope you have a happy Friday! :)
lol that is so funny. i'm SO lucky - bc I usually don't experience any side effects from any meds I've taken.
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