Small Good News: Doctor, I Keep Seeing Direct-To-Consumer Spots Before My Eyes

So I was on a coast-to-coast flight {deep vein thrombosis?}, feeling a crick in my neck {fibromyalgia?} and a bit of the blues that sometimes set in around Colorado heading west {depression?} thinking about loosening the seat belt {irritable bowel?}, watching a CNN roundtable discussion of the health-care crisis. Polarities abounded: We should spend more on prevention, we should hold people to account for their lifestyles and focus on cure, we have to ration, but won't that mean only wealthy people can afford care? Is an angiogram a great tool or a billing bonanza, and how about those stents?

And then Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm addressed a question to the pharmaceuticals executive who was defending high prescription costs, even though some of them cost half as much in Canada. He pointed out that generics are reasonably priced, which should provide comfort to anyone suffering from a disease whose treatment's patent has already expired. He talked about the cost of research and development, a reasonable enough topic, but the governor pressed him on a slightly less logical line item: Direct-to-consumer advertisements for prescription drugs.

Anyone who has ever seen the network evening news has seen these ads; aside from deep vein thrombosis, every medical condition that flitted through my brain on that airplane ride was planted there by a television commercial. Actors who personify the demographic of a particular ailment are avoiding the unemployment lines convincing us, in an unintended riff on "Amazing Grace," that they once were lost but now they're found, thanks to a remedy they should ask their doctor about as soon possible. If an alien landed in your media room during the news, he/she/it would think that we are a very unhealthy species indeed.

Governor Granholm wondered: If pharmaceutical companies cut consumer advertising, which hit the airwaves big-time when the FDA relaxed its advertising restrictions in 1997, would prices come down to a level where more of those consumers might actually be able to afford their drugs? If drug companies weren't spending - here it comes, and these are 2005 figures -- $4.1 billion for direct-to-customer ads, part of a $29.9 billion marketing budget - would their product perhaps cost a wee bit less? Stories abound of older people who practice their own sad form of medical rationing, taking less medication or taking it less often because they cannot afford the proper dose. The governor wondered: As long as doctors know what medications are out there, which is the way drug advertising used to work, why spend so much money building brands with civilians?

I don't recall who at the table piped up with an answer, but here is part of it: A viewer might see a commercial for an anti-depression medication, recognize her own symptoms, and get help she might not otherwise have thought to seek. A commercial - not the crushing symptoms it describes, but the HD image and the background score and the happy, relieved loved ones surrounding the newly-happy patient - can make the difference in someone's life.

Which raises a new question: How dumb do they think we are? If we're suffering as badly as the people on screen, aren't we perhaps going to mention it to a friend or loved one, or, holy intake form, to a doctor? Isn't someone going to notice that we're off our feed? Do we need to see something on television to know that what we're feeling is real? And is it reassuring or somehow terrifying to think that a doctor would prescribe based on a patient's suggestion? Call me a cock-eyed optimist; I'd like to think that someone who suffers, chronically, might do something about it on his or her own. On the other hand, people who are in such denial that they ignore these kinds of symptoms probably aren't going to change their minds because of a sixty-second spot.

Let's not even address the likelihood of mis-self-diagnosis - and if you doubt that possibility, go up onto one of the medical sites, type in a set of symptoms, and see how many possibilities you get.

But back to the economics of branding: How much likelier might we be to ask for medical help if we thought we could actually afford the offered solution?

So kudos to Governor Granholm for her plain-wrap, straight-out question, to which she did not get an equally straightforward answer. May she keep asking. And as certain groups send out emails exhorting people to "join the mob" protesting President Obama's health-care plans, may we find a dignity similar to hers, in which we ask these kinds of pertinent questions with a reasonable and reasoned voice.

Visit www.karenstabiner.com or write to [e-mail]

Comments

[rlugbill]

I don't wait for the government to ban these ads. I don't watch TV and I don't take drugs. I'm 50, in good health and only take an antibiotic once in a while if I am really sick.

All drugs are toxic. Just look at all the side-effects listed on every one. Take them as little as possible, preferably none at all.

And don't watch TV. I just watch dvds and I don't have to endure those commercials. And my daughter doesn't get brainwashed by them.

[rxvette]

As a pharmacist I am completely against direct to consumer advertising for prescription medications. I have no problem with advertising for over the counter medications though. When the drug companies spend millions of dollars for advertising it does a couple of things. First, it increases the costs of the medication itself and we all know how medications are becoming too expensive and unaffordable for many. Second it coaxes the public into believing that they know what's best for them based on a 30 second tv slot. As a pharmacist I feel I have a really good base of knowledge medically speaking and which medication is right for a person depends on a multitude of factors which the general public doesn't always realize. Just because you have a little heartburn once in a while doesn't mean you need $100 worth of Nexium a month. Often you can do things without medications to alleviate the heartburn. If non-pharmacological options don't work then $10 worth of Pepcid probably will. But that's not what John Doe thinks when the big purple pill Nexium comes up during their break in a mini series. John Doe thinks that Nexium will automatically cure all his problems but is duped into ignoring much more cost efficient alternatives first.

The drug companies and private insurance companies need to stop putting greed in front of human lives. Here's my solutions to successful healthcare reform - http://rxvette.blogspot.com/2009/06/biggest-key-to-health-care-reform-in-us.html

[deepfreezevideo]

Try this simple excercise, count how many pharmaceutical commercials feature one or more of the following human models:

1) The faceless being. A few very well known pharmaceutical companies use faceless people in the ad spots for their most profitable drugs. These beings aren't human because the big pharma companies do not see us as humans at all. They see us as faceless orifices into which their medication flows, and conduits from which money drains out in small trickles, which are then combined into a large revenue torrent. You wouldn't put a human face on a water faucet, nor would they. You have no face, and therefore no spirituality, no mind, no dignity.

2) The harried sheeple. You know who you are...you're perplexed, and even a little frightened by your medical condition. You are, above all, powerless without the drug being peddled. As the somnambulant voice quavers in a soothing monotone about possible fatal consequences from taking this drug, you are assured that once you do take it, you will be saved from that thing all Americans fear most of all, fear of the unknown. And only your big pharma company knows for sure.

[NevaforLeadership]

Direct to consumer advertising should be banned. Period.

[HeresHoping]

Correct! That's the way it is in Britain for example.

We should also limit the level of profit that is made on health insurance. Japan and Switzerland do this, and their insurance companies are healthy and well.

Jeez, just realized what I wrote. We are more concerned about the health of the insurance companies than of our people. SICK!

[WIKANDER]

Totally agree. Every time there is a new drug advertised, most immediately believe it should help whatever illness/condition for which it is intended to cure.

Then the HUGE AND MORE HEINOUS problem is most doctors will prescribe almost any medication in order to get you our of his/her office in rapid fashion. They rarely mention potential side effects or mention withdrawal problems. (Buyer beware....you should GOOGLE the drug BEFORE you buy!)

Any extra minutes with one patient means money out of their pocket; which also brings lectures from the healthcare insurance company covering the patient.

I have just experienced such "patient care" and it is frightful!

[Mahi Joe]

I once was hired to work as a vendor on the visual end of a major pharmacuticals annual meeting. At this meeting they were giving away prizes and awards based upon how well your sales record was over the previous years record. Now I own my own business and if generate a minimum of cost of living increase I am pleased. But what I saw at this pharmacutical event were people who were generating sales well into over 100% over the previous year. In fact if you generated a mere 100% increase you were viewed as a slacker. You really need to see what actually transpires at these meetings to begin to see the huge amounts of profits these pharmacuticals generate. Amazing, absolutely amazing.

[NevaforLeadership]

Thanks for the enlightening post.

[wietog]

The most lucrative sales job on earth = Pharma.

It's DISGUSTING what goes on. You don't want to know.

[CTtransplant]

Sign this petition to have paid health care removed from our representatives in Congress until such time as they reform health care - to include a strong public option - for 'we the people' who they are supposed to represent. Then spread the word to anyone and everyone you know!

http://www.petitiononline.com/PubOp676/petition.html

[HeresHoping]

My Congressman Dr. Steve Kagen MD already denies himself government-provided health insurance. Sure, he can afford his premiums as he is a physician, but he shows his principles! This petition is great, wish I'd thought of it myself!

[mitsie]

These ads need to be against the law. Those actors, playing doctors, sitting behind a desk writing our prescriptions. An ambulance pulls into a ER, with the camera looking up at the people, like we are on the stretcher, saying we have high cholesterol, and thus out come the defribulation equiptment.

I also don't want to explain to my little grandchildren what viagra is, or why the people are sitting outdoors in two bathtubs. This is ridiculous, stop the drug companies from running these, and have them lower the cost of drugs by not having to pay for the commercials.

[deepfreezevideo]

The two bathtub commercial is my fave...kids think Viagra helps them take a bath.
Can't wait to see the news story about the four year old who took Viagra right before bath time.
Should be a lollapaloozer.

[Mahi Joe]

These commercials are a ploy on part of the pharmacuticals to get you, the consumer, to push their products free by recommending them by name to your doctor. What if these pharmacuticals put all that stoopid advertising money back into research instead would not that be for the greater good?

[condor101]

Just one more reason that I don't watch broadcast or cable T.V.
I canceled my cable 7 years ago and feel much better.
Whenever i'm at an airport lounge, I'm appalled at the Drug Advertisements and other disgusting commercials for polluting companies like BP and Exxon Mobile, etc.

I am one of the few fortunate to have realized the corruption in our food/clean­ing/energy­/medical systems. I buy most of my food from local farmers markets and some organic products at the store. I make my own cleaning solutions with soap nuts, vinegar, baking soda, etc. I use mass transit as much as possible and when I purchase my house in the near future, I'm installing small wind turbines and solar panels. I want to e able to cancel my electric company one day. I'm also buying a true hybrid electric car from Aptera, that gives 300/gallon.

In terms of medicine, I eat as well as possible, avoid sugars, sodas, milk, packaged juices, fried foods and salty foods. I prepare my own juices and drink lot's of filtered tap water and almond and rise milk, and eat a mediterranean diet. I never take medicine I absolutely need it, usually to cure a fever. I exercise regularly; which includes weught lifting, hiking, bicycling, and yoga.

It's a constant battle to eat and live well, but the effort is worth it. Each passing day, I feel better that I am making the best decisions for my health and wealth.

[CJWebber]

You are one in a million. It's amazing what you can get done if you stop watching TV.

[humaneismyth]

it must be nice to be independently wealthy and have so much time on your hands.Not that I think you are doing wrong..just..sayin.

[boredwell]

Those commercials seem directed to hypochondriacs. Especially the generic ones that ask, for example, "Are you having trouble sleeping, difficulty getting though the day, disinterested in your former hobbies, just feeling blah, lethargic?" Well, that's ALL of us, isn't it, at one point of time or times throughout our hectic lives? For those who have their doctors on speed dial, make an appointment after seeing that spot, the reality is they just walk out-most of the time-without a script for Happy Pills. One would like to think that any doctor worth his/her diagnostic skills would dig further into that person's case and psyche to arrive at a more reasonable, professional positive outcome for that person. Besides, doctor's ego don't take lightly to a patient challenging them with self-diagnoses let alone suggesting name brand meds. Yet Governor Granholm's question, while pointed, received an answer as glib and feckless as the drug companies' ad. Will logic and reason ever be able to undermine profit and greed?

[Mahi Joe]

Excellent analysis. My first thoughts after reading the article was that we are producing a new generation of hypochondriacs. If I have a particular ailment I am going to consult with a real doctor before requesting a medication I saw advertised on TV which has more harmful side effects than the cure it is supposedly is designed for. We are so bad that now we can't even remember the actual name of the medication but we sure as heck can remember their cute advertising ploy such as that "purple pill". I also love when they say..."if your pain persists" consult your doctor. Define persists...an hour, a day, a week, a year, after your dead?

[amhcw]

While I was growing up, it was soap/detergent ads. Now I use vinegar in my scrub pail and baking soda in my laundry. Oh so much cheaper and works just as well. I say: re-regulate advertisin­g--especia­lly to eliminate items not available freely to the general public like prescription meds. Bring back the ability of programing to talk about cheap and common cures--like ginger to relieve nausea. Let's get our economy going with beneficial things to advertise--like hybrid or hydrogen fueled cars.

[humaneismyth]

you use baking soda alone to wash your clothes?And vinegar smells harsh..how do you eliminate the smell?

[BluBuffalo]

Another piece to this issue is generic vs brand name. Did you know that restrictions for generic drugs aren't as closely watched as those for brand name medicines. I have to take a pill, everyday, for the rest of my life. My doctor won't allow me to get the generic brand of the medication because there's no guarentee that the dosage is exactly correct. I have to order to brand name version of the medication just to be certain I'm being correctly treated. Luckily, there's a brand on the cheaper side, but clearly, offering generic versions of medication isn't the answer either when it comes to patient affordability.

[MJinCanada]

That can't be true -- unless the FDA has totally gone on vacation. It has to say right on the package what the dosage is and it has to meet standards.

[HeresHoping]

If your doctor is telling you this, s/he is either criminally incompetent or lying. The Food & Drug Administration, which must approve every drug on the market, has a page on generic drugs located at http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/QuestionsAnswers/ucm100100.htm

It says and I quote: "A generic drug is identical--or bioequivalent--to a brand name drug in dosage form, safety, strength, route of administration, quality, performance characteristics and intended use."

In the same vein: "Are generic drugs as effective as brand-name drugs?

Yes. A generic drug is the same as a brand-name drug in dosage, safety, strength, quality, the way it works, the way it is taken and the way it should be used. FDA requires generic drugs have the same high quality, strength, purity and stability as brand-name drugs."

[livnletlive]

i never understood for the life of me, why is it permissible for pharma to advertise directly to the PUBLIC...if my doctors does not know that i need a certain medication then he needs to go back to medical school or has no business being a doctor...i think this is the only country where such advertising is done...even 3rd world countries with their loose or dysfunctional medical regulations don't allow that...it's a travesty only possible because of the pharma lobbyists...the doctor does not need more paranoid patients hounding him, do i need this or do i need that drug...and then such advertising end up with silly disclaimers about HORRIBLE drug interactions or side effects which probably 90% of the patients can have because of their medical histories statistically speaking....notice the speed of articulating these disclaimers are like auction announcers....but hey, as long as they dump the liability on the doctor who maybe constantly annoyed about drug questions while the pharma CEO keep getting his fat check then who cares...in the meantime the patient does not wanna hear from doctor about lifestyle changes or prevention to help him...he just wants a pill cause we're a pill nation and that's what constant advertising programmed him to think like....right?

[2celestial]

Excellent post, Karen! My late father was an advertising copywriter who wrote drug ads for doctors for a great part of his career. I have been appalled at the volume of direct-to-consumer ads for pharmaceuticals in recent years. I applaud Gov. Granholm's question and hope that current dollar figures for these ads start to get out there to the voters. I also would ask people to question their newscasters who seem to be pretty much supported by these same Big Pharma advertisers as to their objectivity in reporting the debate on health care reform. How can news organizations, already being gutted because of monetary concerns, not be affected by the fact that (just guessing the percentage here) about 50-70 percent of their newsroom/network revenue is being provided by Big Pharma??? Having worked in broadcasting at the beginning of my adult life, I can vouch for the fact that newsrooms and boardrooms don't want to offend the hand that feeds them. Just saying! Keep this idea in mind while you watch your newscast and hear about the "death" of the health care reform bill just before the recreational sex drug ad comes on from their sponsor!

[Merlin7]

Commercials can be a form of bribery, a way of achieving leverage over the media. Go to fedspending.org and look at the top 100 federal contractors. Very familiar names, including Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman, Bechtel, KBR, GlaxoSmithKline, various insurance companies (!!) and others. The amounts the government is spending on these companies are mind-boggling. And many of the companies also spend countless millions on slick TV and radio commercials that seem to have little practical value. (When was the last time you bought a fighter jet?)

Propaganda is expensive -- but they can afford it, since they're using our money.

[sunnybunny]

Thanks because it never made sense to me why they advertise things to people who can't go out and buy them. Still this pharma thing is just plain wrong.