NO FREE LUNCH

"We are health care providers who believe that pharmaceutical promotion should not guide clinical practice. Our mission is to encourage health care providers to practice medicine on the basis of scientific evidence rather than on the basis of pharmaceutical promotion. We discourage the acceptance of all gifts from industry by health care providers, trainees, and students. Our goal is improved patient care."

"We aim to achieve our goal by informing health care providers as well as the general public about pharmaceutical industry efforts to promote their products and influence prescribing; provide evidence that promotion does in fact influence health care provider behavior, often in ways that run counter to good patient care; and provide products that can replace pharmaceutical company paraphernalia and spread our message."

"We believe that there is ample evidence in the literature--contrary to the beliefs of most heath care providers--that drug companies, by means of samples, gifts, and food, exert significant influence on provider behavior. There is also ample evidence in the literature that promotional materials and presentations are often biased and non-informative. We believe that health care professionals, precisely because they are professionals ,should not allow themselves to be bought by the pharmaceutical industry: It is time to Just say no to drug reps and their pens, pads, calendars, coffee mugs, and of course, lunch."

I was glad to run into this site. For some time now I've been seeing constant advertisements for prescription drugs, aimed at consumers, for the sole purpose of getting people to push their doctors into prescribing the latest miracle-drug "As seen on TV". I gave my opinion on this type of thing in an earlier post entitled: Serotonin and Depression: A Disconnect between the Advertisements and the Scientific Literature.

It appears, from another article entitled: Backstory: A pill they won't swallow, that some are getting, and spreading the message.......

"Behind the modest rebellion is the belief that taking gifts from drug companies creates a conflict of interest for doctors. The argument: To accept handouts is to feel indebted, and doctors indebted to drug firms may not be prescribing medicines based solely on what's best for their patients. The 60,000-member American Medical Student Association (AMSA) urges students and doctors alike to just say "no" to all personal gifts from drugmakers."

But this still isn't nearly enough to counteract the effects of the constant bombardment of prescription drug ads directed at the general public. The pharmaceutical companies, the public must understand, are in it for the money. They sware no Hippocratic oath, and their only allegiance is to their stockholders. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, it's business as usual. And it's also a good thing for people to become more involved in their own health care by learning of their options. But there's an effort to create diseases out of everything, and, to avoid developing actual cures. If you've seen these ads, you may have noticed that they recommend, or imply, that you take their drug, for the rest of your life. From a business standpoint, it's better to have repeat customers, than to have one-time buyers who are cured and no longer need to purchase more drugs after anymore than a few treatments.

I read somewhere (and if I ever remember where, I'll surely post it) that with all the medical expertise and technology, Americans are the most drug dependent people on earth, and also the most diseased. For some odd reason, we are the most unhealthiest of people. I don't mean to imply that's all the drug companies' fault, we're responsible for our own health, but it's just fascinating that people of other nations, who don't have a monolithic medical/pharmaceutical industry are so much healther the we are. It's a good thing we have such an industry, being as sick as we are. If you're an American, ask yourself how many people do you know, that are on some kind of prescription drug for managing some ailment, rather than curing it. There's just something not right about such a large portion of any society, needing to be forever medicated.