{"id":22049,"date":"2019-02-28T11:01:52","date_gmt":"2019-02-28T00:01:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=22049"},"modified":"2019-02-28T11:01:55","modified_gmt":"2019-02-28T00:01:55","slug":"marketing-malady","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=22049","title":{"rendered":"Marketing Malady"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Marketing<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The pharmaceutical industry\u2019s image has been significantly damaged in recent years as the public discovered the role its aggressive marketing played in fueling the opioid epidemic. But the American people are still largely in the dark about what may be pharma\u2019s most effective tactic for pushing drugs \u2014 marketing diseases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a substantial body of medical literature dating back to the early \u201990s about the practice known as \u201cdisease mongering.\u201d Pharmaceutical companies regularly pathologize everyday experiences, convince doctors that they are serious problems, tell a hypochondriacal public it needs help and offers the cure: a new drug. Against the onslaught of billions of dollars in marketing campaigns each year, however, researchers\u2019 warnings about these tactics have gone largely unheeded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Mayo Clinic, nearly 70 percent of Americans take at least one prescription drug.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adriane Fugh-Berman, a professor of pharmacology at Georgetown University Medical Center, said the pharmaceutical industry medicalizes normal life by positing that a vague, highly relatable, everyday condition is symptomatic of a newly invented disease. In other cases, pharma exaggerates the prevalence or severity of an existing condition to entice more customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMarketing for a drug can start seven to 10 years before they go on the market. Because it\u2019s illegal to promote a drug before it goes on the market, what they\u2019re promoting is the disease. That\u2019s not illegal to do because there\u2019s no regulation on creating diseases,\u201d Fugh-Berman told Yahoo News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lisa Schwartz and Steven Woloshin, co-directors of the Center for Medicine and Media at Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, said disease-awareness campaigns may seem caring or educational but are often just marketing in disguise. The campaigns often follow three basic steps: lower the bar for diagnosis, raise the stakes so people want to get tested and spin the evidence about a drug\u2019s benefits and risks. These steps were seen in campaigns on testosterone deficiency, bipolar disorder and restless leg syndrome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/malady-mongers-drug-companies-sell-treatments-inventing-diseases-100040360.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The pharmaceutical industry\u2019s image has been significantly damaged in recent years as the public discovered the role its aggressive marketing played in fueling the opioid epidemic. But the American people are still largely in the dark about what may be pharma\u2019s most effective tactic for pushing drugs \u2014 marketing diseases. There\u2019s a substantial body of … <\/p>\n

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