I just finished reading an important new book, "Selling Sickness: How The World's Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All Into Patients," by Ray Moynihan and Alan Cassels.
It documents disease-mongering, how drug companies foster the creation of medical conditions to create markets for their pills, the marketing of fear, the "medicalization" of normal states of health, the hidden agendas of "disease-awareness campaigns," problems with drug company relationships with celebrity spokespersons and patient advocacy groups, and other issues about which most consumers don't have a clue.
As one skeptic says in the book, "We're changing the experience of what it means to be human."
It also points to numerous instances of what the authors call "sycophantic media coverage" and an "indictment of the flaccid culture of much medical reporting."
I highly recommend the book.
Posted by schwitz at August 9, 2005 12:22 PM | TrackBack