In 2005, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported(1) that drug overdoses killed 33,000 people that year. Roughly 10,000 people died in 1990 of the same causes. In 1999, it was 20,000 people. Are you seeing the trend? In 2005, drug deaths were second only to car accidents (44,000 people killed) in the category of accidental deaths.
The category ''drug-induced causes'' includes not only deaths from dependent and nondependent use of either legal or illegal drugs, but also includes poisoning from medically prescribed and other drugs.
This huge increase in people dying is not because of a heroin or crack epidemic. It's not young black people who are dying either. This increase in deaths is happening in the middle-aged, white demographic. CDC epidemiologist Leonard Paulozzi stated to Congress, "Mortality statistics suggest that these deaths are largely due to the misuse and abuse of prescription drugs." (1a)
46% of of Americans(2) take at least one prescription pill daily. Do we really need this shit? Are these drugs really solving all of our problems? If so, why is the pharmaceutical industry growing every single year, with some of the biggest, if not the biggest, profit margins of any industry?
If you haven't seen the drug commercials, you are not watching TV. It used to be the majority of commercials were trying to get you to buy a car. That fact may still hold true, but these days you can't get through a set of commercials without being pitched the latest in Restless Leg Syndrome medication, or the best new pill to get you to sleep at night. Here's a tip: Stop being such a stressed out lard ass and get some exercise. Maybe your wife would screw you to sleep if you weren't so repulsive.
Get yourself a Tivo and skip the bullshit. I've never felt better!
How much is spent on marketing prescription drugs? We all know about the commercials. But that only accounts for a portion of total spending for marketing pharmaceutical drugs. Big Pharma spends millions on commercial email, online marketing, and print. They will spend $1 billion in 2008 on direct marketing to make a return of $10 billion (3). Now that's profitable!
Despite my best efforts, I cannot find a comprehensive break-down of the total marketing spend of pharmaceutical companies. The best I can do is a study that shows that the, "pharmaceutical industry's drug promotion efforts ... estimate that the industry spent $12.7 billion promoting its products in 1998." (4)
The resulting estimate of $12.7 billion is high not only in absolute terms but in relative terms, Ma noted, as the pharmaceutical industry ranks 34th among the 200 U.S. industries with the largest advertising expenditures.
That was in 1998. The pharmaceutical industry has grown exponentially since then. The commercials have only gotten more rampant. And I thought drugs were so expensive because of Research and Development!
Shouldn't drugs sell themselves? Do you get the feeling that you're being sold these drugs to make you think that you're sick with something, just so you have to spend an insane amount of money per month on prescriptions? If those advertising numbers piss you off, then you might want to check out this article: Big Pharma Money Spent on Marketing Exceeds Drug Development Costs
Are these drugs we're swallowing by the pound effective? Don't get me wrong. I am not some holistic health nut (although I'd probably live longer if I were). For the sake of disclosure, I do not take any prescriptions drugs. Am I lucky, or do I realize that most of our problems can be prevented or cured with changes to lifestyle?
I do see a place for drugs. Some people get legitimate help from the drugs the take. Some. A good portion of the drugs that make up the multi-billion dollar industry of pharmaceuticals are simply doing nothing, if not making us worse.
A recent study(5) suggests that anti-depressants only work for the severely depressed. If you're one of those halfway depressed souls, then you might as well be taking a sugar pill.
An analysis of the data showed that patients taking antidepressants fared no better than patients receiving a placebo. This appeared to be the case whether the patients were mildly or moderately depressed. The drugs only seemed to benefit a small group of patients -- those with the severest depression when the study began.
My doctor must be feeling pimped out about now since he trys to over prescribe me. I wish he would read the article or at least resist the Pharm salesman in his office on a daily basis. I usually see one every visit. BRAVE NEW WORLD
by
woody (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 10 comments)
on Wednesday, May 21, 2008 at 9:00:51 AM
Drug companies research, develop, market, and sell legally approved substances to individuals that have been diagnosed with diseases by medical professionals. Now you because you read into some data suggesting that somehow drug companies are criminally shoving these approved medications down people's throats and killing them, we should do away with all drugs.
I worked in the drug industry for 21 years. All of our products were exhaustively tested for safety and efficacy. I mean exhaustively, to not only satisfy FDA (the Federal Drug Administration) requirements but our own moral and legal duties. Why knowingly risk putting a drug on the market that will harm others?
Each human body is a unique assembage of parts. A drug that in you might be totally effective and safe might kill me. Drug companies and the FDA, let me assure you, do everything possible to keep those drugs that might kill me off the market. But sometimes they fail. Drug testing is not a perfect science and is terribly complex. The number of unknowns in such testing is staggering. That is bad but it is not a reason to quit making, developing, or selling the drugs that do so much for so many.
READ THE DAMN WARNINGS on the the drugs you take. Ask your doctor and pharmaceutist questions. TAKE SOME PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY for your own health and welfare. Do not depend on some politician to do it for you.
I can tell you that we tested drugs for safety at 5x-10x the normal dose many times even though only a complete fool would take it at that level. We would find there are quite a few complete fools in the world.
It sounds to me like you have no idea about the drug business and look at the drug industry problems only from the political angle. And if you are in the business of advising people about what they should or should not do with their bodies, those people may be in danger.
by
Mad Jayhawk (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 311 comments)
on Wednesday, May 21, 2008 at 4:00:07 PM
I went to my doctor office about 6 months ago for some leg pain. It was the first time I had been there in about 18 months. Everything had changed. The clinic was taken over by one of the biggest corporate health companies in Central Pennsylvania. The entire staff was replaced.
A doctor I never saw before "examined" me by asking me for my diagnosis and what kind of pills I wanted. Then he wrote me a prescription and billed me for $105. He never touched me.
I went to another corporate clinic a week later. Receptionist said I couldn't see a doctor and gave me a Nurse Practitioner instead. The NP tested my blood pressure and almost cut my arm off. She said I had high blood pressure and gave me a presecription. Strange, because my blood pressure had been low the week before and was low in the pharmacy when I tested myself and had been low for for my entire life.
Shortly afterward, I suffered a bad cough that kept me up nights and out of work for weeks. I went back. she said she thought I had pneumonia and sent me for tests (negative) and gave me antibiotics (2 rounds). She sent me for more tests (negative).
After more than a month of this, I looked up the side effects of the blood pressure meds. Guess what? Persistent cough in 35 percent of patients.
I was paying $506 month for health insurance. They wouldn't pick up a dime. So I'm stuck with $1500 of medical bills, a month and a half of lost work and was never examined by a doctor. On the plus side, my blood pressure has been measured 3 times after I got off the meds and it's never been high. And my legs still hurt.
by
grassroots (0 articles, 2 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 39 comments)
on Wednesday, May 21, 2008 at 4:14:56 PM
If you haven't been exposed to the world of the developmentally disabled, a significant slice of Americans who have no autonomy, you cannot begin to understand the situation. Being physicians, either primary care or specialists such as neurologists and psychiatrists, etal is not very lucrative or rewarding. These folks, such as my son, cannot be cured, only managed. Physicians have their limitations. Yet what they order shall be done. And so the hit or miss drugs are tried. But then, if behavioral problems appear or worsen a trip to the psychatrist is called for. The psychiatrist cannot change the order but only layer on another drug, usually psychotropic. And the Primary Care cannot undercut another physician's order. They play this complex political game between the specialties and the shortage of money to treat their patients often taking to runners from the programs who aren't always that familiar with the patient themselves. There are some very fine doctors serving the developmentally disabled. But I strongly suspect in the mix are those tempted by the drug companies to play too fast and loose with prescribing these powerful drugs. This is a captive audience to be paid by captive Medicare prescription and Medicaid funds. Even when the assisted living programs they are in would like to step in, they usually cannot. The medical guardian is often the state they live in. The social workers are overwhelmed. As a mother, I have taken medical guardianship by approval of the court. But it is difficult for me, as a layperson, to assess and intervene. I've been through that a couple of times. It's a balancing act with the definite impression that my son is a victim of the overactive marketing of drugs.
by
Pat Williams (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 82 comments)
on Wednesday, May 21, 2008 at 9:36:04 PM
Years ago when i first retired my wife and I went to live on the Costa Del Sol in Spain for the winter. There we met a young German couple, he was a scientist and had worked for Bayer in their research labs. He was so digusted with the poisons that were being pushed down peoples throats he left.
Any doctor if he's honest will tell you most of the drugs taken are not required, I take one baby aspirin a day and I'm 79 . Yes their are people who need a drug but not a whole cocktail of them. The TV adverts are mostly for drugs because the drug companies know a society like the USA is always under pressure, always fearful and desperate.
I'm not too concerned about these people as I am about the enormous damage the drugs are doing to the water supply by excretion and just simply flushing them down the toilet. They inevatably get into the aquifier system and then into our bodies. I fitted a reverse osmosis machine in the house years ago and I advise you to do the same.
by
douglas kay (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 83 comments)
on Thursday, May 22, 2008 at 9:08:34 AM
6 comments
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