dieseltaylor Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 No not hatred for Australians but: These are two of a never-ending barrage of pharmaceutical advertisements known as direct-to-consumer (DTC) ads that bombard Americans day in and day out. Such ads are permitted only in the U.S. and New Zealand. They are intended to provoke an individual consumer to request a specific prescription drug from their doctor. In 2009, the pharmaceutical industry spent an estimated $4.5 billion on such advertising. Total 2007 U.S. pharma industry sales were $315 billion. And DTCs seem effective, particularly in generating new sales. According to a Kaiser study, Americans in 1992 got an average of seven prescriptions per year; however, in 2008, the average number of prescriptions nearly doubled to 12 prescriptions a year. Either people have gotten a lot sicker or DTC ads are doing their job. The report notes, DTCs have “added about $180 billion to our medical spending.” http://www.alternet.org/story/149909/how_does_the_drug_industry_get_away_with_broadcasting_those_deceptive_ads?page=entire It seems to me that the US is going down the pan and it is an object lesson to countries who might be tempted to believe that unfettered capitalism is OK. Or that the law and politicians are some form of defence. See article for the introduction of drug advertising. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pešadija Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 Hey, diesel, what's up with all these doom threads you put up lately? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dieseltaylor Posted March 1, 2011 Author Share Posted March 1, 2011 “I told my family I never want to live hooked up to a machine and surviving on liquids, so they unplugged my computer and poured out my wine.” — Laurie Spugnardi Hey life is serious And ignorance is bliss! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pešadija Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 Hope the last phrase is not serious - just meaning if it's your mood lately or just a general interest. The Spugnardi thing is hilarious. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
costard Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 meh, the Kiwis don't hate Aussies, we're not worth the effort. One day we'll win the Bledisloe and be worthy. 'til then, we're the idiot cousin. DT, if your media is dying for want of advertising revenue, you'll pass a law to enable it to get what it can. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
costard Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 Pesadija - where are you that the future looks no worse than the present? In a time warp? DT is getting older and crankier, intimations of mortality infect his very being. Plus, he lives in Britain and suffers from being surrounded by the inhabitants of that gloomy isle. It's spring - his posts should start to get more upbeat as the year progresses. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stalins Organ Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 I haven't noticed much drug advertising here - there was some for a weight loss product - Zentec?? - a couple of years ago........and there's the occasonal Cialis add .....there were some others a few years back - can't think off hand what they were for - they usually have a tag line along the lines of "ask your doctor if ABC is right for you..." You can't buy this stuff over the counter here - it has to be prescribed, so I guess it is pressure on consumers to ask their doctors to prescribe a particular product. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abneo3sierra Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 I have also always thought it just plain crazy that a patient will ask his doctor for a medicine. And yes, a bad mark there to unfettered capitalism. The quote by Spugnardi is hilarious Diesel. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dieseltaylor Posted March 1, 2011 Author Share Posted March 1, 2011 Costard - I would imagine in NZ there are too many avenues to spend your advertising money now and therefore they yelp for aid. We have the same in the UK where product placement and increased adverts are meant to be the cure. The laugh is the more adverts you put on the less likely I think people will watch. The article says simply on the DTC adverts the average viewer in the US sees 16 hours a year. Has anybody considered that the explosion of commercial channels and satellite was bound to have this affect - less revenue. And NZ does not have much population anyway so it probably has world level costs but a tiny market. Perhaps a straight feed from the BBC channels with some local content would improve things : ) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 Hey, diesel, what's up with all these doom threads you put up lately? Oh, it's not really recent. He's been a Gloomy Gus for years now. But seriously, I find most of his posts interesting and containing some important truth or other. So I actually look forward to them. You shouldn't take them as the last word of course, but I doubt that he means for you to. Just be aware that certain discussions are in the air and some of them are worth attending to. Think of it as a small echo of Hyde Park on a Sunday afternoon. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pešadija Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 But I bet Hyde park on a Sunday afternoon has more soapboxes and less cranky grogs. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dieseltaylor Posted March 2, 2011 Author Share Posted March 2, 2011 I actually don't like being gloomy. My preference is for of escapist books, movies, and TV programmes : ) My Fair Lady as a favourite movie! Terry Pratchett for author ..... Unfortunately as one grows older you realise that all the beliefs etc you held when in your teens, twenties and thirties are shown to be either wrong or grubby. It is either that or the world has become a much nastier world. In fact it is a bit of both.! I suppse I could post just jokes and funny articles but deep within me has always been a desire for knowledge, and for happier/better mankind. Given I lhave the time available I have given into the temptation of sharing what I think are important articles. Now they always say you cannot change someones mind. I think that is bollocks as sometimes people simply do not know enough to have formed a hard view on the subject. Knowledge is hugely important but few people have the time to pursue it - particularly in those earlier decades when growing-up, the opposite sex, and a career are the primary importances. I certainly know Other Means learned something relating to his own health from one of my threads. I like to learn, and I find it interesting to read anyones comments as besides possible being factual!! they also provide an insight into a persons mind and perhaps there social conditioning. It helps if you can frame them - Pešadija - possibly Serbian or Hungarian aged 20 - so what you type adds to the picture I have of someones mind. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abneo3sierra Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 I do not think it is "gloomy" to post thought provoking articles either. And while my style of debate, born from an early interest in law and political debate, may come across as harsh, I have also been known to change my mind if the opposing side brings enough facts, and less rhetoric, to the table. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pešadija Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 Croatian, actually. And trust me, from 18 to the end of 2010, I squeezed my brain for answers, knowledge etcetera, but simply the factuality of the harsh things of the worls can - and must - live with an interior serenity. Because if things are **** and you can help, then help, and if you can't... you only do a disservice (to yourself and others) by brooding. You know when my most vehement youthful idealism died? 14. :cool: 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abneo3sierra Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 the timing of your idealism's death roughly coincides with your country's troubles, if my math is correct...and that will often do it :| 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pešadija Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 1) I emigrated in Italy. 2) 2004? What happened in 2004 in Croatia? As I recall the spanking new highway in Dalmatia was underway making my almost yearly trip down south soooo smoother. Greatest trouble was 1990-1995, so... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abneo3sierra Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 1) I emigrated in Italy. 2) 2004? What happened in 2004 in Croatia? As I recall the spanking new highway in Dalmatia was underway making my almost yearly trip down south soooo smoother. Greatest trouble was 1990-1995, so... Ahh, I guessed your age wrong then. It is a compliment though, it means that you seem more mature than your real age would indicate. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pešadija Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 And thank you. But some childish delusions still scratch the back of my head... eh eh 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dieseltaylor Posted March 2, 2011 Author Share Posted March 2, 2011 buse of prescription painkillers continues to rise, according to a study conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "We urgently need to take action," CDC Director Thomas Frieden said. "These prescription medicines help many people, but we need to be sure they are used properly and safely." Emergency room visits for non-medical use of prescription painkillers have now reached a level equal to those for illicit drug use, the study found, using data from the SAMHSA Drug Abuse Warning Network. Such visits increased 111 percent between 2004 and 2008, from 144, 644 to 305,885. The increases were seen across all age and gender categories. Emergency room visits associated with all painkillers increased, which doctors attribute in part to increasing prescription rates of those drugs across the United States. The drugs responsible for the most emergency room visits were oxycodone, hyrdrocodone and methadone, with other painkillers such as morphine, fentanyl and hydromorphone following close behind. Nonmedical use of oxycodone was responsible for 105,214 visits in 2008, an increase of 152 percent over 2004. Hydrocodone-related emergency room visits increased 123 percent, to 89,051, and methadone-related visits increased 73 percent, to 63,629. This surge in emergency room visits is actually straining an already overburdened U.S. health care system, Hyde warned. "This public health threat requires an all-out effort to raise awareness of the public about proper use, storage, and disposal of these powerful drugs," Hyde said. According to government statistics, prescription opioid abuse causes 13,000 deaths per year. The growing epidemic of painkiller abuse has led pharmaceutical companies to research less addictive alternatives. The FDA recently approved an addiction-thwarting painkiller, Embeda, by King Pharmaceuticals. Another new painkiller, Acurox, is pending approval, but FDA advisers have urged that the drug be rejected. Sources for this story include: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS.... So stressing the health services following increased prescription rates ... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abneo3sierra Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 Quite interesting. Makes a good case for some type of regulation in this area. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pešadija Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 This forms a nice contrast with the medicin-less healing thanks to the mind. Eh... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stalins Organ Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 Was chatting with a colleague who is an ambulence paramedic here - part time and volunteer based upon his previous fire-service training (he's a sucker for a disaster). He reckons that most of their call outs are for reassurance - people are scared of somethign - a coughing fit in the middle of the night, nausea a few hours after a dodgy chicken sandwhich. He often gives people drugs that they have in their cupbard - paracetamol, anti-nausea medication are common - he was talking yesterday about someone who had some of hte later for their children (I forget the name sounded like Fennel??) but insisted she get it from them - which was a very painful intravenous application instead of simple tablets and having it intravenously meant a trip to hospital isted of back to bed! And sometimes literally just reassurance will be required. Then there was the lady who was due to have an operation that day, couldn't get to sleep so called an ambulance to get early admission..... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abneo3sierra Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 Was chatting with a colleague who is an ambulence paramedic here - part time and volunteer based upon his previous fire-service training (he's a sucker for a disaster). He reckons that most of their call outs are for reassurance - people are scared of somethign - a coughing fit in the middle of the night, nausea a few hours after a dodgy chicken sandwhich. He often gives people drugs that they have in their cupbard - paracetamol, anti-nausea medication are common - he was talking yesterday about someone who had some of hte later for their children (I forget the name sounded like Fennel??) but insisted she get it from them - which was a very painful intravenous application instead of simple tablets and having it intravenously meant a trip to hospital isted of back to bed! And sometimes literally just reassurance will be required. Then there was the lady who was due to have an operation that day, couldn't get to sleep so called an ambulance to get early admission..... It may actually be a good thing that people are paying more careful attention these days to their own health, and if advertisements help that, then maybe one +plus+ to the equation. Still though, I myself think that too much medicine in the modern world actually is creating some of the health problems we see...in much the same way as if BFC issues a "patch" to a game, sometimes what it fixes, also messes up something else. Just my .02 Ron 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 I myself think that too much medicine in the modern world actually is creating some of the health problems we see... All too often the pattern seems to be: "You have symptom A? Cool! We have this pill B that will fix that." A few weeks later: "You say you have developed side effects to pill B? Well, this little pill C right here will fix that up and it only costs twice as much as pill B, so you are in luck." Hmmm. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abneo3sierra Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 haha, Michael, you point out an aspect I was not even thinking of.... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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