Pharmaceutical companies and commercial medicine shape and determine mental health and illness in various ways. It is important to address these concerns to understand how diseases and illnesses are defined within the medical system and in society. It is to be noted that there are other aspects of the medical system that are influential in shaping mental health and illness. These agents may be medical insurance companies, hospitals, clinics and health care workers. This paper focuses on the influence of the pharmaceutical industry and the techniques they use to shape mental health while gaining profit. Ultimately, pharmaceutical companies and commercial medicine determines mental health and illness through forms of disease mongering, public …show more content…
They used direct-to-consumer ads in television and in magazines to bring awareness to the most recent drug along with information about illnesses (Rhee, 2008). These advertisements may expose symptoms that are considered to be widespread and treatable with the use of drugs, promising the viewer to be returned to normal function (or what we consider non-deviant behavior). Consider the condition, social phobia, as an example of how advertisements have generated demand and interest in the public. Consequently, it has also generated revenue for the drug companies. The prevalence of social phobia was considered to be rare in the 1980’s, however it has been considered common by 1994 (Kitsis, 2011). The company GlaxoSmithKline utilized the media to depict posters of a man playing with a teacup. The phrase “imagine being allergic to people” was asserted on these advertisements encouraging the public to take medication to decrease the symptoms associated with this condition (Kitsis, 2011). This method, along with sales representatives and physician speakers, have ultimately encouraged patients to ask for drugs by name, and most often they are prescribed. In fact, more than one third of patients asking for medication have seen it by name through the media, and many of these consumers are unaware of the availability of other forms of therapy, such as …show more content…
It may even be argued that the social construction of illness is being replaced by the corporate construction of disease (Moynihan, 2002). These drug companies, which manufacture drugs used for treating mental health disorders, use public relations techniques to expand interest in their products and promote these products to both prescribers and consumers (Gosden, and Beder, 2001). These companies pay particular attention to key prescribers such as psychiatrists and medical doctors. The pharmaceutical companies enlist front groups, otherwise known as partners, who will take part in public debates and government hearings to express “community concern”. If these groups do not already exist, the pharmaceutical companies will create them to generate interest. Most often these front groups are groups of citizens that personally agree with promoting the drug or are experts in the same field (Gosden and Beder, 2001). This method publicly promotes the outcomes desired by the drug companies while claiming to represent public interest (Gosden and Beder, 2001). Front groups also campaign to manipulate public opinion that would benefit the enhancement of psychiatric drugs. An example of this strategy is how pharmaceutical companies have funded front groups to actively encourage drug-based treatment over other forms of therapy (i.e. talk therapy). Furthermore, the companies will selectively fund research
In Melody Peterson’s “Our Daily Meds” , the history of marketing and advertising in the pharmaceutical industry is explored. The first chapter of the book, entitled “Creating disease”, focuses on how major pharmaceutical companies successfully create new ailments that members of the public believe exist. According to Peterson, the success that these drug manufacturers have experienced can be attributed to the malleability of disease, the use of influencial people to promote new drugs, the marketing behind pills, and the use of media outlets.
In Japan, drug makers published advertisements in newspapers to “alter the environment in which anti-depressant drugs are or may be used…and promote the idea of depression as a common ailment” (Watters 524). As depression has been believed to be incurable, drug makers argued that this disease was equivalent to a cold of the soul or kokoro no kaze. They also published articles in magazines and included statistics showing how many Japanese suffered from depression. The articles asserted that depression has been ubiquitous just like colds. Sometimes, a medical company may extremely underestimate the effects of a disease that the population would think it does not require medication. This approach, in turn, leads to questioning the legitimacy of their actions and the real motives behind their advertisements. Companies must be aware of what and how they communicate to people, because by frequently exposing the public to a certain idea or concept, it becomes unconsciously ingrained in the public subconscious. The public perception of depression in Japan has led to severe consequences, including an increasing suicide rates, “lost man-hours and decreased productivity” (Watters 526). As suicide rates increased, drug makers embraced a difference approach, modified their advertisements,
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketing of pharmaceuticals has grown increasingly in the past decade. The American public views prescription drug advertising for a wide range of medical conditions, including high cholesterol, depression, allergies, and erectile dysfunction. The Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates the content of these advertisements. Critics also have taken the position that the advertisements garner unearned trust from the public, are misleading, and promote unnecessary use of prescription drugs for common problems associated with aging. Proponents counter that DTC ads help eliminate stigmas associated with certain medical conditions, give patients an active role in their health care management, and encourages the doctor/patient relationship. There have been calls for bans on DTC pharmaceutical advertising, but the practice is protected under a business’s right to free speech. Regulation changes, particularly requiring the FDA to pre-approve marketing campaigns before they are released to the public, may be one way to appease opponents, while protecting the rights of pharmaceutical manufacturers to advertise to the average American consumer.
"In the past two decades or so, health care has been commercialized as never before, and professionalism in medicine seems to be giving way to entrepreneurialism," commented Arnold S. Relman, professor of medicine and social medicine at Harvard Medical School (Wekesser 66). This statement may have a great deal of bearing on reality. The tangled knot of insurers, physicians, drug companies, and hospitals that we call our health system is not as unselfish and focused on the patients' needs as people would like to think. Pharmaceutical companies are particularly ruthless, many of them spending millions of dollars per year to convince doctors to prescribe their drugs and to convince consumers that their specific brand of drug is needed in order to cure their ailments. For instance, they may present symptoms that are perfectly harmless, and lead potential citizens to believe that, because of these symptoms, they are "sick" and in need of medication.
It is clear that most DTC advertisements in the pharmaceutical industry easily approach consumers and inject distorted information about drugs into them. DTC advertisements provide clarity in product performance claims, with less reliance on implied benefits (Beltramini 574). Furthermore, DTC advertisements have made a huge impact on public consciousness with constant exposure to their consumers and sell less effective drugs (Lurie 445). Consumers do not recognize the danger of ineffective drugs due to the embellishment of the marketing strategy. Zelnorm, a drug for women with irritable bowel syndrome, is an example of how a highly visible television advertising campaign makes this less effective drug popular. From a pharmaceutical company’s analysis, while 0.1 percent of patients treated with the drug had a heart attack, chest pain, or a stroke and one died, patients taking a placebo had 0.01 percent of these symptoms and none died. Despite inefficiency of the drug, it became a popular treatment for irritable bowel syndrome because of television advertisement campaign; it displays attractive young women whose bellies are inscribed with the catchphrase, "I feel better" (Shuchman 2239). The reason that ineffective drugs, such as Zelnorm, became popular is because most people who have not enough knowledge to evaluate drugs
Within my group’s pro-Adderall campaign, we promoted adderall use among high school students who were struggling with a relatively poor attention span, inability to focus, and were thus unproductive in their schoolwork. We created a video commercial that follows the same tactics pharmaceutical advertisements used, described in Dumit’s Drugs for Life. Dumit emphasized how ambiguous pharmaceutical ads were in order to reach a broader audience, and reinforced that all people experienced the stated symptoms to some extent. The companies only needed a small fraction of the viewers to self-diagnose themselves and purchase the product. Likewise, we targeted students that were experiencing heavier workloads coming into high school, and understood that the majority would struggle in maintaining attention throughout long hours of lectures and worksheets. We used this strategy and targeted all students, both a male and female, in the video since in this period in history it would be offensive if we directed the ad specifically towards males, following the stereotype of the “problematic boy”.
In today’s society, a lot of emphasis is placed on administering drugs and medicating people with psychological issues; however, most of these ailments and issues have the ability be treated through the use of talk therapy rather than medication. Americans are particularly guilty of over medicating when it comes to our more common mental health diagnosis such as, ADHD, depression, and anxiety. We as a society expect things to be done at the snap of a finger; in our advancement of science, we have been able to discover ways of offering the results we want quickly, inexpensively, and with little effort. Unfortunately, although the use of medications, also known as psychoactive drugs, occasionally remove the symptoms, but they do little to remove the causes of these mental health issues. In addition, to the lack of solution that the use of psychoactive drugs offer, they can also have unwanted and dangerous side effects. These can include simple physical irritants such as dry mouth and head aches, and can range up to dependency and substance abuse, and in some cases even death. Moreover, there are cases of inappropriate prescribing, where doctors are authorizing the use of medications that don’t work or are not pertinent to the issue the patient is experiencing. Furthermore, some of these doctors are issuing these medications without subjecting the patient to a proper mental health evaluation by a psychological professional.
Direct-to-consumer prescription drug ads are dangerous and can have serious effects on the health of the general public. In the article “Pros & Cons Arguments: ‘Should prescription drugs be advertised directly to consumers?’”, the pros and cons of the advertising of prescription drugs are compared. The negative aspects of these ads outweigh that of the positives. DTC prescription drug ads misinform patients, promote over-usage, and pressure medical providers. The counter side argues that these ads inform patients, create a positive impact on patient compliance with medication, and cause patients to confront their doctors.
As science has evolved, so have treatments for mental illnesses have over time. The medical model is described as the view that psychological disorders are medical diseases with a biological origin (King, 2010, pg. 413). Abnormal behavior that categorizes some disorders can be impacted by biological factors such as genes, psychological factors such as childhood experiences, and even sociocultural factors such as gender and race (King, 2010). Treatments such as psychosurgery (lobotomy) , drug therapy (pharmaceuticals), electroconclusive therapy, and psychoanalysis are used to treat a wide range of psychological disorders. Back then, the public’s negative views on mental illnesses also went as far to associate with the people who treated it; psychiatrists. “Nunnally (1961) found that the public evaluated professionals who treated mental disorders significantly more negatively than those who treat physical disorders,” (Phelan, Link, Stueve, & Pescosolido, 2000, pg. 189). People back then didn’t see the point in “paying to be told that they were crazy”. However, in today’s society, it is now acceptable to seek help from psychiatric professionals; we are seeing more and more people seek mental health treatment. “In terms of facility-based records of utilization (Manderscheid and Henderson 1998), the data suggest that the rate of utilization of professional mental health services has at least doubled and maybe tripled, between the 1950’s and today,” (Phelan, Link, Stueve, & Pescosolido, 2000, pg. 189). In the 1950’s, neuroleptic drugs like Thorazine were introduced to treat the symptoms of schizophrenia. These drugs block a neurotransmitter called dopamine from getting to the brain, which in turn reduce schizophrenic symptoms, however there are some side effects such as substantial twitching of the neck, arms, and legs, and even dysphoria or lack of pleasure. (King, 2010, pg.
First and foremost managed mental health care is a business and good business often prevents good medicine. Theoretically, a well implemented managed care could work well, but in order to make their stockholders happy, managed care companies do not always implement policies to help the patient. An example of this would be the common policy of company personnel making tre...
Mental health issues are pervasive in todays society. Individuals diagnosed with severe mental illnesses, such as bipolar disorder, have a diminished wellbeing due to the stressors associated with their illness. Whether these psychosocial aggravations are an internalized manifestation of poor self esteem, societal renunciation, or subjective distress, it is evident that mental illness is a stigma on the individual dealing with the disorder, as well as a strain on societal resources. While reliance on psychotropic medications and psychosocial interventions have traditionally been a common treatment plan, many argue that the overuse and inappropriate prescription of drugs in the treatment of mental heath is creating a larger problem than
Psychopharmacology has played a huge role in my life since I was about 9 years old, but recently, I have discovered that many people in my family have had similar struggles to mine. My beliefs, values, and attitudes regarding psychotropic medication have been formed from my family's and my experiences with mental health treatment. This has lead to some biases, which will likely impact my practice and potentially present some challenges, but there are many ways to combat these biases and utilize my experiences and beliefs in a way that positively shapes my practice and relationship with clients, whether we (myself, them, and their family) choose psychotropic medication as a treatment or not.
Interpersonal communication is described by Schiavo as a multi-faceted influenced concept. With cultural, community and literacy on the forefront of consideration, these are the means influencing perceived information (Schiavo, 2007). The perception of information can be altered by technology-mediated communication. The article I choose to review was designed to look at the direct to consumer product- specific television prescription drug advertisements during 2001.As the public spends numerous hours viewing television and is easily influenced with the numerous advertisements. Many of the drug advertisements have intent to effect health and specific diagnostic awareness. The current direction of health communication is that of empowerment of the rights of patients (Schiavo, 2007).
Doward, J. (2013), Medicine's big new battleground: does mental illness really exist? The Observer 12 May.
There are hundreds of different careers in the medical field ranging from neurosurgeons to nurse practitioners. Psychiatry deals specifically with the diagnosis and treatment of mental, behavioral, and emotional ailments. The main purpose of a psychiatrist is to help people coop with issues and stress in their environment that make it difficult to lead a normal and healthy lifestyle. These issues may arise from abuse, addiction, mental disability, disease, or physical injury. It is the psychiatrist’s job to ensure the patient can maintain a healthy attitude and continue to provide for themselves. A Psychiatrist may choose to specialize in many sub classes of mental health including children and adolescents, geriatric psychiatry, addiction, and pain management. While requiring an intense and difficult education, the occupation in psychiatry is one that offers meaningful, fulfilling work and a high-end salary.