TV commercials for prescription drugs

[Crazedclerkthe2nd]

Rather than a detailed analysis, I'm just going to offer a few bullet points as to why I can't stand these things:

- The "patients" in the commercials always seem to have super duper fantastic medical insurance and they get to go to huge, super clean modern medical clinics and speak to doctors in large wood paneled offices with a huge bookcase on one wall.

- I know there's a legal reason for it, but the phrasing they use in the spoken words drives me nuts: "My doctor put me on Xanadrine and it significantly improved my joint pain in less than 2 hours." No one ever talks like that.

- Again, required by law but funny: The side effects are oftentimes just as bad or even worse than whatever the medicine is supposed to help you with. I once saw an ad for an anti-nausea medication and one of the potential side effects was, you guessed it, nausea.

- "I got my first prescription free!" - Yes and everyone thereafter will cost you a bucketload, especially if you don't have insurance.

- I really dislike the fact that it shows people hiking through mountains, canoeing on a river, walking a dog, etc. all in magically PERFECT HEALTH thanks to whatever medicine is being promoted. Drugs seldom work that well regardless of what condition is being treated.

- No doctor I've ever met in real life smiles as much as the doctors in these commercials.

I don't think drugs should be advertised period.

[Andara Bledin]

I concur.

I don't think advertising prescription pharmaceuticals directly to the public is ethical, to be honest.

^-.-^

[blas87]

Ohmygosh....

"Side effects include nausea, dizziness, constipation, nose bleeds, severe migraines, and in rare but serious cases, bleeding ulcers, stroke, heart attack, and death."

Yeah, doc, get to writing me that script please! I can't wait to be stopped up for 3 days with bleeding ulcers in the hope that my blood pressure lowers.

[bex1218]

My favorite was one for an ED pill where they show "Bob" smiling away and these women just go after him. And his "wife" doesn't care. Entertaining at best.

[Giggle Goose]

[QUOTE=blas87;128596]Ohmygosh....

"Side effects include nausea, dizziness, constipation, nose bleeds, severe migraines, and in rare but serious cases, bleeding ulcers, stroke, heart attack, and death."

QUOTE]

Some of the side effects of depression meds are enough to make you even MORE depressed

[blas87]

Oh, don't I know it.

I'm on two anti-depressants (well, one is for migranes, the other I'm giving a try for anxiety) and I love how the most dangerous side effect is worse depression.

Really? That's safe. Where's that "seems legit" meme?

[bex1218]

Theres a few that could lead to suicidal thoughts. There was one for RLS that lead to gambling problems. Unless I heard wrong.

[Teysa]

How about that one asthma medication where they said it could cause death in people with asthma? I know I blinked a few times when I heard that one.

Blas87 "Side effects include nausea, dizziness, constipation, nose bleeds, severe migraines, and in rare but serious cases, bleeding ulcers, stroke, heart attack, and death."

The first thing my mom asks whenever the doctor puts her on something new is, "What are the side effects besides nausea, vomiting, and death?"

[HYHYBT]

My favorite on the side effects was for a diet pill that, I understand, is no longer available. First five seconds or so were a bunch of plates with a couple bites of food on each and the announcer saying "what if you could leave a little on your plate at each meal?" The remaining 25 seconds were side effects, but worst was that they were exactly the things people lose wait to prevent: strokes, heart disease, high blood pressure, etc.

[Giggle Goose]

My favorite on the side effects was for a diet pill that, I understand, is no longer available.

Not to mention one that causes "gas with oily discharge". I think that's Alli, which basically makes you shit your pants if you eat too much. Now it's available OTC.

This is anecdotal, of course, but I have a friend that developed a driving phobia from taking Chantix over a year ago. He is still working on getting over it, and other than that he's one of the most easy-going guys I know. And he still smokes

[TheHuckster]

On the side-effect front, obviously they're talking about "possible" side-effects. Clearly, since everyone is physiologically different, not every med is going to work the same for everyone. If they did a drug trial among 1000 people and just one of them had the runs for whatever reason, they'll have to add that to the list of possible side-effects.

I'm torn on advertising for meds. I think the way they market them is wrong, as if anyone who farts more than twice a day needs to be medicated. However, I do think the public should be informed of possible medications that could truly improve their lives. Not everyone with a certain ailment knows that there's a simple pill available for them, and if taking a daily pill can help improve themselves, then I'm all for it.

We just need to get rid of the really unethical things, such as incentivizing doctors to prescribe as many pills as possible, ripping off consumers who need to spend hundreds of dollars per month for a drug, and automatically prescribing pills when there might be an alternative way that doesn't involve drugs.

[ExRetailDrone]

This is anecdotal, of course, but I have a friend that developed a driving phobia from taking Chantix over a year ago. He is still working on getting over it, and other than that he's one of the most easy-going guys I know. And he still smokes

My dad took Chantix to help quit smoking a few years back. The good news is that it did indeed help him quit smoking, which is insane as I always figured he would be a lifelong smoker. He had smoked for so many decades before then that I figured he would never want to quit. However, the drug apparently made him have really crazy nightmare-like dreams or something. I don't think he remembers them, but my mom told me that he would mumble and toss and turn, which he never did before then. He was always a pretty sound sleeper and never moved around much, so my mom figures it's probably the medicine that caused it.

[AdminAssistant]

Alli's kind of a fat-blocker, and if you eat too much fat while on it, then you have terrible, horrible diarrhea. I can't take it because my gallbladder's been removed, and that already changes how your body processes fat, but it never appealed to me anyway.

ETA: I love that one medicine, I think it's for RA?, and one of the side effects, no lie, is tuberculosis.

[guywithashovel]

I really hate the Cialis commercials. If nothing else, I just wish they didn't have to be so long.

As for the commercials being misleading by showing really healthy people, the OTC drug commercials do that, too. The DayQuil commercials used to show people all bogged down with a cold who took a shot of DayQuil and are now functioning normally and sprinting through their day with poise.

[Mr Hero]

I don't remember the drug, but it was for a sleeping pill. One of the listed side effects was drowsiness. Ya think?