http://mindhacks.com/2006/04/12/disease-mongering-for-fun-and-profit/ Neuroscience and psychology news and views. Mon, 20 May 2013 15:51:40 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ http://mindhacks.com/2006/04/12/disease-mongering-for-fun-and-profit/#comment-8008 Thu, 13 Apr 2006 17:51:51 +0000 http://mindhacksblog.wordpress.com/2006/04/12/disease-mongering-for-fun-and-profit/#comment-8008 i’ve seen the drug pushers (reps) in action, and i know a few people from college that tried to suck me into that world w/ them (i didn’t budge). it’s amazing that it’s even legal, it would seem a doctor that’s in the pocket of some pharm company is having a conflict of interest when treating a patient.
“if drug A has less side effects, but drug B’s manufacturer is paying for my new outdoor swimming pool, i’m not gonna bite the hand that feeds me!” wouldn’t it at least be fair to the patient to know what drugs a doctor is being paid to prescribe?
on a slightly related note, i did work for a clinical research organization which was marketing an SSRI (anti-depressant), but with prozac and paxil and zoloft flooding the market treating all the existing emotional and psychological symptoms, diseases and syndromes, they couldn’t find a niche. so they literally scanned their case report forms for trends, and found “statistically significant” weight loss for many patients on the drug. VOILA! diet medication!
cast a certain overweight oral sex champion of the last democratic presidential administration as the spokesperson and our old drug has new fancy clothes!
i remember specifically asking my bosses about the drug’s mechanism of action – it apparently worked to “facilitate a nuclei in the hypothalamus known to cause feelings of satiation.” wow, what were the chances?!?

]]> http://mindhacks.com/2006/04/12/disease-mongering-for-fun-and-profit/#comment-8007 Thu, 13 Apr 2006 00:58:57 +0000 http://mindhacksblog.wordpress.com/2006/04/12/disease-mongering-for-fun-and-profit/#comment-8007 Apparently html is stripped from comments. Here’s the url (full article is not free):
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/prem/200604/drug-reps

]]> http://mindhacks.com/2006/04/12/disease-mongering-for-fun-and-profit/#comment-8006 Thu, 13 Apr 2006 00:56:49 +0000 http://mindhacksblog.wordpress.com/2006/04/12/disease-mongering-for-fun-and-profit/#comment-8006 The April issue of The Atlantic has a good article about pharmaceutical sales representatives and how they court doctors. It’s called The Drug Pushers.

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