There’s rising concern among medical experts that pharmaceutical companies may be encouraging the use of unnecessary medications. It all seemed to start with the promotion of drugs for the treatment of female sexual dysfunction.
Pharmaceutical companies started bringing in medications for an illness that doctors had not even confirmed the existence of. These days, that’s still happening with female sexual dysfunction and a whole slew of other conditions, so much so that now big drug companies seem convinced that everyone in the world needs some sort of medication.
These days, people tend to think that there is some ideal of how their body should behave. And modern advances in medicine are sending the message that drugs are the best way to fix all their problems — from high blood pressure to obesity.
The solution is often just a healthier diet and more active lifestyle, but people are searching for the holy grail of medicine — and pharmaceutical companies are latching onto this concept, encouraging the prescription of medications that are unnecessary.
Sometimes these companies are even accused of “creating” diseases so they can sell more of their products. It’s a practice that experts call “disease mongering.” This April, doctors even staged a medical conference on the issue in Newcastle in the U.K.
The hope is that more awareness of this practice can be brought to doctors and patients alike. While many medications are necessary and beneficial, the fear is that when doctors insist that patients be on a drug or when doctors don’t ask enough questions of pharmaceutical companies, patients could end up taking unnecessary drugs that are costly at best and dangerous at worst.
Pharmacists and nurses are also being warned about the “disease mongering” practices of companies. The key to safe and efficient medical care may be to look skeptically at all drugs and not just to accept a product as being automatically beneficial.
So, while commercials and other marketing ploys for drugs can be valuable tools, they should always be looked at with a careful eye. Doctors and patients should also remember to explore non-drug options whenever possible.
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Tags: blood pressure, obesity
