Bitter Pills
Date Friday, March 29, 2024 - 06:56 AM PST
Topic News


There is an evil lurking within our country. There is a conspiracy threatening to destroy the health and sanity of the American people. They have bases within our borders, and we, the American public, support them without reservation.
Their stronghold? Madison Avenue. Their new campaign? Prescriptions.

I'm not talking about the TV "patients" touting the glory of America's Pharmaceutical Companies. I don't even mean the warm-and-fuzzy grandparents with heart disease who urge you to Ask Your Doctor About Lipitor. It's worse than that.

Background

Seven years ago I was diagnosed with a rare medical condition that affects, among other things, my ability to sleep. For years I tried combinations of warm milk, regular bedtimes, melatonin, carbohydrates at bedtime, Zen meditation and relaxing baths. No luck. My insomnia escalated to where I could barely work.

My doctor suggested medication. No way, I said. No tranquilizers. I've seen those movies where the heroine starts with sleep aids and ends up robbing hospitals to get morphine. No thanks.

My doctor replied: No. Not tranquilizers, or antidepressants, or anything addictive. You have abnormal biochemistry. There's a drug out there with the side effect of altering certain biochemicals in ways that make most patients sick, but could be just what you need.

He wrote the prescription. I carried it around for a month before filling it. From the night I took the first pill, my life changed. My short-term memory is back. No muscle spasms and cottonmouth at 2 AM. The daily chills are gone. I can sleep. I can think. I can work. Hallelujia.

I've been taking a low dose of this stuff for two years and I've never felt better. I could be one of those patients raving about America's Pharmaceutical Companies. But I'm not.

The Evil Hits Home

Yesterday I went into the pharmacy for my fix. I also needed another prescription for something unrelated. The nice lady in the white coat hands me a bag. I look inside to verify that I got the right pills. (Once they gave me something that looked like Ritalin. That would have been Bad News.)

Inside the bag, stapled to the information about my prescription, arecomputer-generated ads for two different drugs.

Let that sink in for a moment: Enclosed with the medicines that my doctor has recommended for my condition are computer-generated flyers for DIFFERENT MEDICINES. Not generic equivalents of name-brand drugs. Not the mass-produced pamphlets about Lipitor or Prozac or Viagra or Prilosec that get shoved in everyone's bags. Information that was, supposedly, personalized for me. Urging me to Ask My Doctor about medications that could actually make my condition worse.

I nearly threw the flyers at the pharmacist.

This Matters Why?

Imagine, if you will, some poor uneducated patient who sees the doctor about depression, or heart disease, or ulcers, or HIV. The doctor recommends a treatment. The patient gets these slick flyers from the pharmacy and thinks: This looks like what I need. Maybe my doctor doesn't know what he's doing. Maybe he's a quack. Maybe they're all quacks. Maybe I'll die because the cancer drug I've been prescribed isn't the best, newest, flashiest thing on the market. Maybe I should go somewhere else and get this new thing.

More money for the drug companies. More confusion and grief for the patient. More time lost by treating the illness incorrectly.

I'm lucky. Years of managing my health have taught me what to avoid. I know if I took the drugs that flyer recommended, I could land in the hospital.

And I don't have AIDS, hepatitis, cancer, or any other disease where life or death can come down to the choice of drugs given. I can't even imagine how vulnerable such patients are. I don't lie awake at night between bouts of chemotherapy-induced nausea, debating whether I should have Asked My Doctor About Prescription X.

Back in ancient times, when I was in high school, one could avoid being the victim of an advertising attact by turning off the TV and radio and picking up a book instead of a magazine. It's different now. Books aren't even safe: the Bulgari Connection has seen to that. In the name of the Sacred Economy, ads for Yahoo.com are stamped on the Pepsi bottle I'm drinking from as I write this. Harry Potter is selling Coca-Cola. Public schools serve McDonalds hamburgers. Annoying? Yes. Of course.

But using an ignorant electronic database to second-guess the treatment regimens of seriously ill patients? Not annoying. Disgusting.

This article comes from Shmeng
http://www.shmeng.com/

The URL for this story is:
http://www.shmeng.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=190