Guest guest Posted February 24, 2004 Report Share Posted February 24, 2004 If this guy thinks that regular med school education isn't built upon what big pharma wants to be taught, he is blind. And it has been that way for about a hundred years now. And a large part of it is reading symptoms and to prescribe what type of drug although it may describe it generically and be taught by a professor. Kinda like the information you get on the TV ads, but just a lot more dressed up. Frank Tue, 24 Feb 2004 15:17:38 -0500 WC Douglass Med " schooling " Daily Dose February 24, 2004 ************************************************************** The REAL " med " school In just the last year or so, I've written many times about the distressing degree to which the major drug companies' marketing techniques are impacting the way medicine is practiced in this country. From primetime TV ads that subtly convince people to self-diagnose complex medical problems (and that their only hope is some new wonder-drug) to the grassroots lobbying (see also: bribing) of individual doctors to prescribe drugs for unapproved uses, the marketing of these patent medicines is OUT OF CONTROL. This kind of thing ought to be illegal, in my opinion (yes, I'm all for regulation in this instance - go ahead and mark this date on your calendar). But then, if you've been a Daily Dose reader for more than a few months or so, you already know that. What you may NOT already know is this: Such drug marketing interactions are practically part of the curriculum at some psychiatric schools. What am I talking about? The indoctrination of medical students to not just prescribe patented medicines as a knee-jerk solution to all mental health diagnoses (whether they're approved for the condition at hand or not) - but also to recommend certain newer, more expensive drugs in the place of older, now-generic medicines. So who's doing this " educating, " you ask? It isn't PhDs. It's the DRUG REPS from the major pharmaceutical makers! According to a recent commentary published in The New York Times (yep, every once in a while they get it right), many schools where green MDs go to learn psychiatry as a specialty permit drug sales reps nearly unfettered access to the residents. The reps do everything they can to influence these residents to prescribe their newest antidepressants and other drugs - and to make sure they know (or at least believe) that these same drugs are prescribeable for maladies OTHER than what they're approved for. Drug companies sponsor clubs and discussions, pay for seminar speakers, offer free dinners to residents and staff, give out free samples of their drugs by the bag-load, and more... Written by an actual staffer at a major college of psychiatry, the article even cites an instance where a female drug rep loitered by the interns' mailboxes under the auspices of delivering flyers about a medication - but while there, she engaged and flirtatiously " detailed " three residents about new (unapproved by the FDA, I'm sure) uses for her company's antidepressants! This is exactly the kind of guerilla marketing I've been railing about - the kind drug companies spend 4.8 billion dollars a year to perpetuate. Finally, someone in the mainstream press is talking about this, too. Halleluiah! But the fact that this kind of thing happens all the time in medical schools all across the nation isn't even the most outrageous part of this story. Keep reading... ************************************************************** To start receiving your own copy of the Daily Dose, visit: http://www.realhealthnews.com/dailydose/freecopy.html Or forward this e-mail to a friend so they can sign-up to receive their own copy of the Daily Dose. ************************************************************** Here's the real kicker about one-on-one drug marketing: The targeted doctors feel as though they're immune to the charms of both the drug company perks and the smooth-talking sales reps themselves. That's right - according to the Times piece, studies have shown that most physicians believe that their prescribing habits remain uninfluenced by the siren-song of these seductions. Yet in one study of more than 400 psychiatrists, more than half of them said they believed the newer antidepressants (SSRIs) were both more effective and had fewer side effects than older medications. But meta-analysis studies conducted at Oxford, Duke, and other prestigious institutions found that these expensive new drugs were no more than the equals of the older antidepressants in effectiveness - and may even be slightly LESS effective, with just as many side effects! This discrepancy between scientific evidence and real-world clinical practices all but proves a link between one-on-one marketing and the success of new, expensive, and relatively untested medications - even when they're no " better " (that's a relative term, believe me) than the dirt-cheap, generic varieties. Proponents of the current system of unrestricted drug rep/student doctor contact include many of the residents themselves. Their reason? To become better prepared for the real world of medicine - where they're assaulted on all sides by shrewd marketers hawking the latest test-tube panaceas. Now, if that's not a stark illustration of how out-of-control drug marketing has become, I can't imagine what would be... It's just another snapshot of how in-the-pocket of the drug giants mainstream medicine (especially psychiatry, but this happens in every discipline, I guarantee it) has become - and they aren't even AWARE of it. Again, I say: There ought to be a law! Schooled back when " med " meant medical, William Campbell Douglass II, MD ************************************************************** Copyright ©1997-2003 by www.realhealthnews.com, L.L.C. The Daily Dose may not be posted on commercial sites without written permission. ************************************************************** Before you hit reply to send us a question or request, please visit here: http://www.realhealthnews.com/questions.shtml ************************************************************** If you'd like to participate in the Dr. Douglass' Real Health Breakthroughs Forum, search past e-letters and products or you're a Dr. Douglass' Real Health Breakthroughs r and would like to search past articles, visit http://www.realhealthnews.com ************************************************************** Mail SpamGuard - Read only the mail you want. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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