Have you been tickled by the latest angle in commercials for meds?

[108blessings]

The med you are now taking isn't good enough (either it stopped working or doesn't address all your symptoms). So, lucky you, they came up with a NEW drug that will address more of your symptoms! Isn't that grand? I even heard one this morning that pointed out a side effect of a popular erectile dysfunction drug and touted a NEW pill to remedy the side effect! Gotta hand it to these guys: they have major cajones!

Oh, and money! Lots and lots of money...:woohoo:

[uppityperson]

1. No, but I am annoyed by people who think all medicines are bad.

and I am annoyed by people who don't understand that EVERYTHING has effects and side effects. And I am annoyed by people who advise others to stop taking medicines because they MUST be bad since Big Pharm is bad.

Of course everything has an effect and a side effect. And no, pointing that out is not anything recent or "new".

[donco6]

6. I missed that person.

Is he in another thread?

[Systematic Chaos]

7. That response deserves a prize.

:yourock:

[uppityperson]

11. personally, I'd rather go braless and avoid breast cancer than take garlic rather than my thyroid rx

both of which have been advised. teehee

[hvn_nbr_2]

22. So apparently you agree with donco6 that that person is in another thread

since there's nothing in this thread about breast cancer or thyroid.

[uppityperson]

30. Yes. So do the mods since OP is TS'd.

[Donnachaidh]

12. yeah, but when the side effect is DEATH

You can't really believe that people are going to *just take it* because you might not be one of those who suffer THAT side effect.

There's extremes on BOTH sides.

[uppityperson]

13. I agree. Have spent a fair amt of my professional time researching & educating

about health care issues, including medicines. Of course there are extremes on both sides.

[donco6]

16. True.

Don't get people started on the anti-immunization stuff. That makes me crazy.

Maybe I just did . . .

[108blessings]

19. Get your facts straight, please!

They are called "fatal events," doncha know? :rofl:

Guess it is supposed to soften the possibility of such a side effect?!

Actually, I noticed on the last commercial where DEATH is a possible result, that they used the actual word DEATH. Probably got quite the hue and cry over the PC version.

[Mugweed]

18. Can you at least agree that you're annoyed by

having a commercial instruct you to "ask your doctor about "? Shouldn't the doctor be the one telling you which drugs you should be prescribed? Or how about "tell your doctor you're taking"? How many GPs do you have? Shouldn't that GP already KNOW what you're taking, since it was prescribed by said doctor?

[uppityperson]

23. I do get annoyed @ ads "ask your dr". And no, a GP may not know all you

are taking since you may have had other providers rx you other things at other times and your pcp (primary care provider) may not know. Esp these days with insurance rules and HIPPA stuff and putting pressure on pcp's to shove you throw as fast as possible, your pcp may well NOT know unless you tell them.

It is ALWAYS a good idea to have 1 pcp know what all you are taking and make sure you let them know if something changes.

[Systematic Chaos]

2. I came in here to express my outrage towards Big Pharma...

... and instead I'm totally gobsmacked.

:grr::grr::grr:

[Xipe Totec]

3. Cymbalta commercials make me depressed

[108blessings]

5. Damn, they just won't quit, will they?

Well, why should they when there are so many people who can't see the forest for the trees about this issue.

I never said that drugs are never to be used. But this is an epidemic.

[Jane Austin]

8. Cymbalta gave me my laught back.

Also my whistle, my appreciation for small things, and my tendency to put my words to music when I talk to the dogs.

[Xipe Totec]

9. It's not the medication I object to, but the commercials

It makes me depressed just looking at the sad suffering faces of the actors.

[Systematic Chaos]

10. Hell yeah. That fucking oboe or whatever playing, with saaaaad people...

... in ugly-ass pukey blue-green rooms with minimal light and a droopy-looking suicidal dog in the corner.

Followed by another two or three shots of cloudy days and people dressed in the same goddamn garish colors their rooms are "decorated" in.

Then the music picks up just a tad and it's

SUNSHINY HAPPY PRIMARY COLORS OOOOOOH LOOK I'M SMILING AND I CAN'T GET UP OOOOOOH HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY!!!

Mind you, I'm NOT saying that Cymbalta can't help a number of people. I'm sure in many instances it does. But the commercials make me want to howl until the paint peels off the walls. :freak:

[donco6]

4. I think the magazine ads are amazing.

First page of ad: charming picture of lovely New England coastline with happy couple, hand-in-hand strolling down a deserted beach in the sunset.

Next two pages of ad: In teeny-tiny print, outlines all the bad things that might happen to you if you take this drug.

Sheesh.

[monmouth]

14. I love listening to the "may cause" part. Twenty things that could be

pretty awful side effects. Who the hell would want to take this stuff with that possibly around the corner. Like some people on Ambien, getting up, walking, driving in the middle of the night and not having a memory of it? Pharma is out of control also. Whatever happened to the FDA?

[donco6]

15. There was one that said it had caused cancer.

I mean . . . really. What could be so terrible that you would risk cancer to mitigate it?

I've had cancer. I wouldn't take it.

[108blessings]

17. I love when they say "trouble passing urine..."

Yah, urinating seems pretty to be an important ability. :yoiks:

And there is one, maybe related to the prostate, where they talk about decrease in semen...Sorry, I am not really that prepared to hear about semen at 7:30 in the morning...

[monmouth]

20. Hahaha, oh lordy. I love the depression one. I realize depression is a

very real and debilitating issue. But if you notice the poor soul is pictured in black and white, hair is a mess, clothes drab, dark, etc. Then! Makeup, hairstyle, smiles, walking in the park, etc. How friggin stupid do they take us for? I had a friend that suffered depression and it didn't work that way for her. She trudged along as if she were on thorazine. Very sad...she was no longer depressed, she just didn't give a#&%#

[108blessings]

21. They. can. make. one. very. flat.

It's scary because some of us realize that life is not some effing constant trip to Candy Rock Mountain. Even dark nights of the soul can be illuminating and lead to a deeper understanding of it all...

I believe that this mentality is the Spoiled Child Syndrome. I need to be happy, happy, happy all the time. Bullshit!

[uppityperson]

24. There are other choices between happy happy happy and unable to function.

If you truly believe those who are clinically depressed are searching to be "happy happy happy all the time", you have no clue.

[108blessings]

25. Clinical depression is a chronic, mild depression, no?

Why in the world is one's diet not looked at? Caffeine can very easily deplete one's B vitamins, which are crucial for good mood. Refined sugar and flour causes the yoyo effect and I know that wreaks havoc on mood. Same with substance abuse. How many people going to their GP (or therapist) are alcoholics? Have other issues with abusing intoxicants? You'd be amazed at how many professionals go on and on and never even ASK what their patients' habits are. Exercise has been shown to be just as effective as antidepressants (or even more so?) for clinical depression.

[uppityperson]

26. "Exercise has been shown to be just as effective as antidepressants (or even more so?)" Prove it.

"Exercise has been shown to be just as effective as antidepressants (or even more so?) for clinical depression."

Prove that claim.

"Why in the world is one's diet not looked at?" "You'd be amazed at how many professionals go on and on and never even ASK what their patients' habits are."

My pcp and my spouse's pcp and my sibs pcp's and the pcp's I have worked with discuss a lot of things, including diet.

"Refined sugar and flour causes the yoyo effect and I know that wreaks havoc on mood". Prove that claim.

[DCKit]

28. Nah, they jumped the shark back in the 80's...

when commercials for "feminine products" started running during the dinner hour.

Guess they figured if we could handle that, anything goes.

[108blessings]

27. I am in the library and just passed a book called "Our Daily Meds"

Subtitle: "How the pharmaceutical industry used slick advertising to hook a nation on drugs"

Sounds like a good read:)

[rocktivity]

29. They make the drugs sound so wonderful

And then there's a list of side effects that are downright terrifying!

:headbang:
rocknation