Skip to content

Reply to comment

Medicine disbursement and advertisement needs revision as well

May 28, 2005 by zerus, 4 years 25 weeks ago
Comment id: 1035

Considering the whistleblower's report, we may blame the pharmaceutical industry for releasing dangerous drugs into the mainstream as with Vioxx et al; however, the pharmaceutical industry is not totally at fault for these drugs becoming mainstream. Take for instace the reasons why these powerful drugs would be given in the first place. Historically, a doctor would only prescribe them if the patient truly needed them and weaker, safer treatments were not working. For a drug that affects many teens adversely, consider Accutane and the reasons people take that. From what I've seen, teens who don't have extreme cases of acne or excessive blemishes, but only mild or spotted pimples DEMAND to move straight to Accutane because of its reputation as a cure-all for acne related problems. Why is this such a problem? Because doctors are not practicing good medicine anymore. With all the pushes by the pharmaceutical industry to allow advertising prescription drugs on TV, radio, magazines, spam, etc, we have consumers driving demand for drugs instead of doctors. Reading a WebMD site does not comprise intensive training and specialization. Doctors need to say no to their patients and not prescribe the extremely powerful drugs when a weaker, better tested drug may work just as well if only given the chance. I also blame the medical insurance companies and medicare/medicaid for forcing doctors to see 60+ patients in an 8 hour day, because 8 minutes or less is not always enough time to correctly diagnose the problem. Especially when the patient is insistant on receiving a particular drug because they were told to ask about it by some voice on the television. Afterall, a the doctor is much more inclined to simply prescribe that drug because it fits the symptoms and would let him/her proceed to the next patient. This is bad medicine and the problems of a user-driven prescription drug system is going to have some serious consequences, some of which are proving self-evident in the Vioxx case.

Reply



About us

Science Blog was started in August 2002. It lives, breathes and eats press releases from research organizations around the globe. Most of what you read here are press releases from the outfits named in the stories themselves. Got a news story you think belongs here? Let's talk. The other half of the equation is blog posts from readers like you. So if you have an interest in science, please register and join others like you in an ongoing, vibrant dialog about what makes the world tick. Meantime, please take a minute to read our Privacy Policy and Site Disclaimer.