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Disease, Dogma, and Misguided Medicine

By Michael Dorausch, D.C.

Imagine you created a drug and you wanted to find as many ways as you could to get that drug into the hands of the public. You may create a condition, something that many people could relate to, and then you could market the drug to treat it.

If the disease was not real would the drug need to work? Would a placebo (sugar pill) work just as well?

Two articles appeared in different publications in late July that I found interesting. They were posted less than 24 hours apart and may not seem to have anything in common with each other. Read them both (links are below) and ask yourself… 1) are the conditions real? 2) are the drugs any better than placebos? 3) does anyone care as long as $$$ is made?

First, you market the disease…
The news is not new to us. We talked about it last year (see link below). If you can create a condition (like generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, etc.) and can market a drug to treat that condition your basically in like flint. Think about it. If the condition is not real wouldn’t nearly anything have an effect?

The first article, which appeared in the Guardian, is titled: “First, you market the disease… then you push the pills to treat it.” The Guardian article talks about the “ugly truth about doctors, PR firms and drug companies.” Not only are the conditions questionable, but the patient testimonials about the drugs (in this case Paxil) and even the non-profit groups associated with it, were suspect.

We jump over to the Washington Post and find… “a recent study unexpectedly found that antidepressants sometimes perform no better than placebos (sugar pills) in treating depression.”

According to the article, drugs such as Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil were tested. The results showed that in most cases placebos performed “as well or better” than the antidepressants.

The Guardian: First, you market the disease… then you push the pills to treat it
Washington Post: Misguided Medicine – A stunning finding about antidepressants is being ignored.

Planet Chiropractic: Create a Condition, Create a Market

planetc1.com-news @ 7:00 am | Article ID: 1030543214

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