Disease Mongering: How Big Pharma Turns Ordinary Life into Medical Conditions

America should never forget about the people who actually have health problems and issues that require prescription drugs. It is great that these people are being helped by technological advancements. However, pharmaceutical companies are skewing the opinion of normal, healthy human beings.

One tool being used by the pharmaceutical companies to push their product has been disease mongering. If the drug companies can convince people that they are actually unhealthy by “educating” individuals through commercials about faulty (or abstract) conditions, and then provide a solution in the form of a pill, it has a very strong influence to buy their product to "fix" the problem.  

Another difficulty is that these commercials present these problems as common when they are actually extremely rare. "All you have to do is change the definition of high blood pressure, and you can increase that market by tens of millions of people, or change the definition of high cholesterol.” 1 

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"It’s frustrating, just when your ready to relax, that’s when it happens. The urge to move along with uncomfortable sensations in your legs, their hard to describe but they can even keep you from going to sleep. You feel the urgent need to get up and move just to get some relief. There’s a name for it, restless leg syndrome and if you have it, you’re among the nearly one in ten U.S. adults who do. Wanna know more? Visit restlesslegs.com." 

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This commercial is a great example of disease mongering. Through their commercial, a drug company is taking common-place occurrences and making them into problems solvable by biomedical chemicals. Dictating to audiences and individuals that they have certain conditions, ailments, or feel a certain way is one of the chief tools of both hypnotism and persuasion. Notice how the commercial does not ask questions about the way the recipient of the information feels. It dictates the feelings, problem, and solution. This tactic skips rational thought or a chance to imagine or entertain the drug's validity or relevance to oneself. 

Social anxiety disorder is a good example of the molestation of shyness. Shyness is a natural and often large part of an individual’s personality. However, Paxil has provided a medical solution for normal everyday life. 

“If you are one of the many who suffer from overwhelming anxiety and intense fear of social situations with unfamiliar people now there’s Paxil CR. Paxil CR helps release the symptoms of social anxiety disorder all day so the real you can come through.”

First, anxiety and fear of social situations with unfamiliar people are normal. Second, you could reach the same objective of reducing “social anxiety” by getting drunk--which definitely helps and (often) provokes discussion and interaction in social situations. However, why do we not substitute the drug alcohol for Paxil? If Paxil frees you of symptoms from social anxiety, that is not “the real you,” is it? 

People who are in distain about being shy need a psychologist and social interaction training. Drugs for such conditions are a “quick fix” that provides an answer, not a solution, worsening the condition and leaving the individual attached and emotionally (if not physically) addicted. The drug treats the symptom, not the problem. 

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One of the most disturbing examples of disease mongering is Sarafem, a knock-off of Prozac. 

“What Eli Lilly was very successful in doing to expand it’s market on Prozac was to essentially recolor it… rename it Sarafem and get approval to market it for pre-menstrual tension which it called pre-menstrual dysphonic disorder [PMDD]. A lot of women would really be outraged if they knew that they were just taking good old Prozac, same dose, but priced, at my drugstore anyway, over three times as much.” 2 

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This was done because Prozac’s patent was running short. (See Marketing Pharmasudicals for more.) Prozac and Sarafem is exactly the same thing. Eli Lilly made up a new disorder and marketed a pre-existing drug for its solution that was never intended for that purpose. It is a great example of how the advertising and marketing industry can sell the American public anything, even “new” pre-existing drugs for disorders that don’t even exist.

"Sex, Lies, and Pharmaceuticals reveals how women’s sexual difficulties are being repackaged as symptoms of a new disorder. (The book) investigates the creation of female sexual dysfunction or FSD, and the marketing machine that promises to "cure" it. The authors go inside the corridors of medical power to visit drug company–sponsored scientific meetings and medical education events where doctors are being trained to see women’s sexual problems as the symptoms of FSD — a pharmaceutically treatable condition. (The authors) expose how global drug companies exploit (sexually dissatisfaction among women)... in an attempt to create the next billion dollar disease." 3

"Thirty years ago, Henry Gadsden, the head of Merck... told Fortune magazine that he wanted Merck to be more like chewing gum maker Wrigley's... [and] "sell to everyone." Gadsden's dream now drives the marketing machinery of the most profitable industry on earth. Drug companies are systematically working to widen the very boundaries that define illness, and the markets for medication grow ever larger. Mild problems are redefined as serious illness and common complaints are labeled as medical conditions requiring drug treatments. Runny noses are now allergic rhinitis, PMS has become a psychiatric disorder, and hyperactive children have ADD. When it comes to conditions like high cholesterol or low bone density, being "at risk" is sold as a disease. Selling Sickness reveals how widening the boundaries of illness and lowering the threshold for treatments is creating millions of new patients and billions in new profits, in turn threatening to bankrupt health-care systems all over the world. As more and more of ordinary life becomes medicalized, the industry moves ever closer to Gadsden's dream: "selling to everyone." 4

1 - 2. Big Bucks Big Pharma: Marketing Disease & Pushing Drugs (DVD). Goodman, Amy. Media Education Foundation.

3. Amazon.com Book Description for Sex, Lies, & Pharmaceuticals 

4. Amazon.com Book Description for Selling Sickness

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