How Drug Companies Communicate Information with You
I’ve been hearing some talk in the drug industry about how they desire to better communicate with patients and consumers. I’ve also become aware of some companies exploring blogs as a way to reach consumers and market to them.
I’m quite wary of these types of approaches - but I have a personal interest in this because I blog here, and having an emergence of “marketing” blogs or worse - splogs (spam blogs) will only hurt the credibility of blogs in general.
That said, I’m wondering how you’d want drug companies to communicate information with you as a patient. What should they do to make you believe that the information they have presented to you is “fair balanced” and is not a promotional spin?
If you have any thoughts or ideas on this, please comment here or please email me at mhsourcepage@gmail.com .
Labeling Bad Behavior as Mental Illness Belittles Those Who Truly Suffer From Them
Daniel Vasquez, Consumer Columnist at Sun-Sentinel.com believes that “Calling rude, nasty behavior mental illness misses the point” and that acts of rudeness, obsession, and violence is getting labels from doctors and drug companies to feed the social desire to medicate away problems.
Mr. Vasquez specifically mentions news about “Internet Addiction Disorder” (IAD) and “Intermittent Explosive Disorder” (IED) and wonders whether these are real problems or just jerks’ excuses. National Institutes of Health (NIH) now recognizes IED and suggests that IED may help explain road rage and domestic violence. I personally share Mr. Vasquez’s skepticism where IED is concerned. Mr. Vasquez also believes that people who used their cars as weapons should be charged as criminals and not treated like they are mentally ill.
Mr. Vasquez consulted with a psychotherapist to get a balanced perspective - I give him credit for that! The psychotherapist stated that a person who is controlled by urges needs help.
Mr. Vasquez’s nephew suffers from bipolar disorder and mild schizophrenia, so he has first hand experience at the devastating effects of mental illness. Thus he feels that our cultural love of labels has led to misdiagnosis and treatment that weren’t necessary and in some cases hurt the individual even more.
bp Magazine: “Hope and Harmony for People with Bipolar”
I saw a news article on a magazine on bipolar disorder and was pleasantly surprised that the articles and back issues were available online.
It’s also nice to see some pharmaceutical company sponsors (front page, right hand column) because without these sponsors I’m sure many of the articles would not be available for free on the website.
I especially enjoyed Lizzie Simon’s article in the current issue on “Stigma: talk or walk.” (click to get pdf file) She brings up a good point - what happens when the person with the stigma against mental illness happens to be intellectual (i.e. “smart”)?
Well, to put things in perspective, one can build a whole case around any belief and find supporting evidence against the existence of mental illness as much as the evidence supporting the existence of mental illness. And I suspect there are PhD dissertations in both areas. There are plenty of doctorate level professionals and research scientists who have seen biochemical changes and genetic changes to contradict the woman who built her whole research project on the conspiracy theory that drug companies must have created these illnesses for profit and to strip away the self reliance of an individual.
Disclosure: I used to work in the pharmaceutical industry and may hold more positive views of the industry than others - unless, of course - I’m criticizing some of the ridiculous approaches drug companies use to market and product their products. I also had suffered from depression and therefore am biased to believe that I had a biochemical imbalance that was helped by both medication and psychotherapies.