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Drugs Abuse

by | 11th, April 2006

‘HOW are you feeling today? Not too clever, eh. Let’s take a look at that tongue. And while you’re at it, can you produce a sample of both poo and wee. Spit on this. And sign this release form which gives your consent for such excretions to form part of a new TV talent show.

‘How’s your sex drive?’

Are you worried what the medics will find wrong with you? You are. Right… You may well be suffering from a form of anxiety syndrome.

The only thing to decide on is what this new disease will be called. And then we must get down to the serious and profitable business of finding which kind of drug the pharmaceutical companies can create to alleviate its symptoms.

As the Times reports, a series of papers published in the medical open-access journal Public Library of Medicine claims pharmaceutical companies are inventing diseases in order to sell you the drugs to cure them.

Stop pacing around a moment and know that your “irritable leg syndrome” might not be a disease after all but just part of everyday life.

That female sexual dysfunction could have far less to do with illness and more to do with just not fancying it or your partner. And your child is not suffering from hyperactivity disorder – he is just a rowdy attention seeker high on sugar.

All three of the aforesaid modern “diseases” are treatable with modern drugs, which you can buy from those caring pharmaceutical firms.

Iona Heath, a general practitioner at the Caversham Practice in London, and a contributor to the journal, tells the Guardian: ‘Disease mongering exploits the deepest atavistic fears of suffering and death.’

She adds: ‘It is in the interests of pharmaceutical companies to extend the range of the abnormal so that the market for treatments is proportionately enlarged.’

In short, if you take the right drugs you might be cured of almost anything, even death.

The journal says that problems of normal life, like the menopause, are being “medicalised”. As the journal’s editors David Henry, of Newcastle University, Australia, and Australian journalist Ray Moynihan say: “Disease-mongering turns healthy people into patients, wastes precious resources and causes iatrogenic [medically induced] harm.”

For their part, the drugs firms deny wrongdoing. Richard Ley, of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, tells the Times: “Drug companies are not allowed to communicate directly with patients, and we do not invent diseases.”

And while you ponder that, your results are back from the lab. It could be that you are a victim of last’s night curry or that you have irritable bowel syndrome. Or bird flu?’



Posted: 11th, April 2006 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink