Having not watched much television in the last 10 years, I was stunned by the amount of advertising about prescription drugs shown on TV these days.
I think direct-to-consumer advertising for prescription drugs should be banned. It's responsible for the fact that Americans are taking too many prescription drugs that are adversely affecting their health with side effects and untimely deaths.
In 1994, the average American purchased eight prescriptions from his or her pharmacy, Melody Pedersen stated in her new book, “Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves Into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs.” In 2006, the number increased to more than 12. Older Americans take an average of 30 prescriptions a year.
More than 100,000 people in the U.S. die each year from prescription drugs, Petersen reported in her book.
Yesterday, the American Medical Association called for better government oversight of prescription drug advertisements directed at consumers to protect patients from misleading information.
Association President-elect Nancy Nielsen, M.D., shared the organization's concerns with some direct-to-consumer advertisements in testimony to the House Energy and Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.
"Direct-to-consumer ads often portray drugs through rose-colored glasses by including more information about a drug's benefits than risks," said Nielsen. "Imbalances in these ads can diminish patient understanding of certain drug risks, and increase the need for an ongoing dialogue between patients and physicians about the benefits and risks of prescription drugs."
At the hearing, the association discussed the need for federal Food and Drug Administration regulation over direct-to-consumer advertising and shared guidelines for this type of advertising that address advertising content, disclosures, and audiences targeted.
"The association guidelines for direct-to-consumer advertising can help ensure that patients receive information about prescription drugs that is accurate, educational, well-balanced and encourages patient-physician communication," said Nielsen. "We look forward to working with Congress to achieve our shared goal — that direct-to-consumer advertisements focus on truly helping patients rather than maximizing pharmaceutical companies' bottom line."
For more information prescription drugs, see my series on the topic by clicking on the Prescription Drugs category to the left.
I am wondering just how long we have to wait before society begins to properly document the untold deaths world-wide from toxic pharmaceuticals improperly and inappropriately prescribed by our brainwashed physicians. A proper evaluation/analysis of premature deaths would indicate that our doctors, drugstores and pharmaceutical companies have become the primary cause of unnecessary citizen death this decade, and the mainstream media is barely commenting on this.
When I wrote my prescription drug series, I used the figure that deaths annually from prescription drugs is in the top five. I think I also read that it’s second.
It’s difficult to know exactly how many deaths are caused annually from prescription drugs because some deaths may not be recognized as being caused by the drugs. Melody Petersen in her new book, “Our Daily Meds,” reported that more than 100,000 people in the U.S. die each year from prescription drugs.
Consumers really need to be informed and do research before they take any prescription drugs long term. Public Citizen recommends not taking any prescription drug unless it’s been on the market for seven years, unless it’s a breakthrough drug. The organization believes so many of the new drugs are cousins of older drugs that have been developed just so pharmaceutical companies can make money.
Thanks for your comment,
Rita