Has BigPharma Pulled A Huge Hoax?

[+ Lucky]

The Hooville forums have seen several threads on BigPharma- the major drug companies, and the games that they play. We all know that something stinks as our doctors seem to be in on payoffs and free lunches that may make them more inclined to prescribe drugs that are new- and expensive.

 

Then we know about the bad drugs, the ones that get marketed only to later find that they have serious, previously undisclosed (or unknown) side effects.

 

Pricing of drugs is also a big problem, with many drugs priced well beyond their actual costs. Drug manufactureers lobby our government to overlook all kinds of flawed studies or inadequate evidence.

 

Now we learn that antidepressants, one of the largest selling drugs in the country, may be no more effective than placebos, albeit with many more side effects than placebos. Studies of these drugs are notoriously flawed, as researchers are now finding. The fact seems to be that a placebo works as well for most patients, leaving only those with the most serious forms of depression showing any real benefit.

 

Yet mucho dollars are at stake if the public learns the truth. The linked article here from Newseek, well worth reading all the way through, shows all the games played to make these drugs look better than they are. The story seems to be quite true, leaving the question of what to do about it. If the BigPharma lobbyists have their way, they will undoubtedly work overtime to discredit the research, and the researcher..actually something already underway.

 

But, facts are facts. If the American people are unwittingly paying out the kazoo for drugs that don't work, is anyone going to stand up and stop it?

 

http://www.newsweek.com/id/232781/page/1

[MsGuy]

It was 40 odd years or more after the underlying theory supporting radical masectomies was proven false before surgeons stopped chopping up women. As the article points out, M.D.'s don't much like to admit to themselves that there's not much they can do when a patient is hurting.

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Note in the last paragraph of Lucky's link DADT is used metaphorically as an exemplar of a bootless government policy. Progress of a sort.

[+ blondeq]

In terms of full disclosure, I work in pharma, so my views may be slightly tainted. That said, there is more than enough blame to go around; pharma for perpetuating the 'take a pill and feel better' syndrome, to docs who can only make a living by processing patients like cattle so they throw a pill at anything that moves, to patients who are constantly looking for an easy fix and DEMAND pills, to congress which is made up of morons that think paying list price, when no commercial payer would dream of buying a drug for less than a 50% discount, makes good economic sense.

 

Pharmaceuticals are an evolving theory. We are on the cusp of some huge breakthroughs that will have drugs that are specifically coded for your genetic make-up so as to guarantee the highest efficacy rate. However, the flip side of that is no one will be able to afford them and no insurance will ever cover them. How do we provide care to the most people without bankrupting the country is the true morale problem. Specific to anti-depressants, there was a study that concluded about a year ago. It studied patients with depression who were on more than one anti-depressant. The study concluded that 65% of the patients were not compliant with taking their first anti-depressant as prescribed. That means that the patient didn't take the medication then reported to the MD that the drug didn't work. The MD without probing and counseling the patient further, threw another prescription at the patient, potentially doubling the cost of therapy without need.

 

My only point to this post is that it would be disingenuous to simply blame MDs or the drug companies. Drug companies, just like escorts, charge what the market will pay. And, they take advantage of the fact that that we are a self consumed society that is always looking for bigger, better, younger, fixes that aren't really available. In fact, we all need to share in the accountability; we need to change our attitudes and realize that most of us don't need a z-pak just because we have a sore throat and runny nose, MDs need to distiniguish between true clinical depression and those that have occasional affective disorders and we need to find a way to treat and financially supplement care for people with chronic disease without supplementing bad habits that contribute/cause the disease. Finally, we need to empower the MDs to spend more than 10 minutes with their patients so they can truly appreciate the patient's holistic status without fear that some ambulance chaser is just waiting to pounce.

[+ blondeq]

Sorry, one other comment I was going to make relative to the article. The pharma companies have absolutely no fear that the general public will learn of potentially flawed studies or flawed efficacy rates. You see, we just aren't that inquisitive (how do you think Bush won a second term). Even if everyone in the world stopped taking the drugs tomorrow, by Tuesday the pharma companies would be telling you, via commercials, that zoloft will now cure your dancing feet syndrome (DFS) and a million people would be demanding a prescription for zoloft so that they could comfortably sit for 96 hours, without movement, and avoid the experience of DFS.

[+ Lucky]

Very good posts, blondeq.