Ban ED medication ads? The REAL problem is prescription drug ads in general

Here's the problem I have with Rep. Jim Moran's bill to ban advertisements for Cialis and other ED medications before 10am. By trying to focus on assuaging the sensibilities of families with young children, Rep. Moran is missing the big picture of pharmaceutical ads in general and what effect they have on the public good.

I work in the medical field, so I realize that ever since prescription drug ads were legalized in the previous decade, they've served as a two-edged sword.

On one hand, television or print ads for prescription medications can help ailing patients who are relectant to seek medical attention come to terms with the fact that they do have a problem, there is medication that can address it and either cure it or improve quality of life, and a visit to the doctor can enable that person to get the medication he or she needs.

On the other hand, the loosening of restrictions on television and print ads for prescription drugs can (and often does) transform pharmaceutical companies into glorified pill pushers, and the people who are exposed to those ads sometime approach the doctors with the conviction that Pill A would be better for their condition than Pill B, which the doctor has recommended based upon that patient's medical history, vital signs, blood and urine analysis, etc., but there's just something about those dancing water balloons or jazz ensembles made out of copper tubing that has got the patient convince that Pill A is so much better than Pill B.

In our current market-based economy, profit is necessary in order for drug companies to produce new medications to relieve pain, to improve quality of life, and even to cure once in a while. But profit is also very seductive, and the desire to increase profit can often result in detrimental effects to the healthcare profession as a whole, where public health deteriorates in pursuit of the proverbial thirty pieces of silver.

So I do wish that Congressman Moran and others would take a step back and try to see the forest for the trees instead of focusing solely on ads that improve penile erection. We don't just need substantial reform of health insurance practices; we also need to look at how we as a nation "market" better health to the Americans who ultimately are supposed to have the final say in how our healthcare system can be improved - not as consumers who vote with our dollars, but as citizens who vote, period.

Stepping off the soapbox...

If not then your implied analogy is fail.

Ban them all, I say....

Not to mention the fact that there are so many ads for prescription medications that they're making it harder for other companies to purchase airtime. I wouldn't mind seeing the occasional commercial for Organic Valley, one of the last great organic food producers that has yet to be scooped up by some larger conglomerate.

and start cutting people (of course, the people at the very top do fine). After 25 years in the grind, my layoff was quite welcomed....life is happier now!

We needed to create flashier ads for our pill, so we needed to cut our staff by 10% to pay for the ads, but our profits haven't met our expectations, so we need to cut more staff in order to pay for more eye-grabbing ads, and then...

Maddening, isn't it? I'm glad you're in a better place now.

They shouldn't be advertising to *me* - they should advertise directly to my doctor. The whole idea of "ask your doctor if XYZ is right for you!" is just silly imo. I don't ask my doctor to prescribe me drugs - he prescribes what he sees fit, not what i've asked him for or seen advertised.

ugh.

Our hospital used to welcome frequent visits from pharmaceutical reps who would bring us free lunches and trinkets, advertise their line of medications, browse our medical journals for the latest clinical findings, and so on. But there's a growing number of hospitals and clinics (including ours) who are cutting back on this practice over ethical concerns, and I've heard a few anecdotal stories of doctors insisting that their patients try Pill A instead of Pill B because they're getting incentives from the makers of Pill A to do so.

The commercials will stop when they stop influencing prescribing habits. Studies have shown that most of the time a patient asks for a specific drug, they get it. To me, this indicates that docs don't feel confident about what to prescribe and why. We need a mechanism to enforce evidence-base practices, rather than prescribing based on what a patient asks for (or even worse critereon, which we won't get into...).

The GP exam rooms in at least some of the local Harvard Med-based hospitals have charts showing, for each of the most common issues, a recommended order for prescribing drugs along with relative costs, and even pricing for OTC drugs (e.g., the price of omeprazole at CVS and Costco). This seems like a really good idea.

If that were my name, I'd change it.

was a doctor. He retired a few years after Big Pharma began to run ads on TV. I remember from talking to him that as soon as the ads started running, he felt his job changed. He said that patients came to him, no longer wanting his judgment and expertise, but instead of a pill they saw advertised on TV, even if it was all wrong for them.

I do not want my doctor to be able to choose my cellphone provider, what car I drive, or what clothes I wear. I do however think that a doctor should be able to use their expertise to decide what drugs are right for a patient.

Another downfall of the drug advertising. Try explaining to your then 4 year old (female) cousin what E.D. is after seeing a viagra ad on a football game (sports should be family friendly). I simply replied "something you will never have"