Drug Marketing – Money Talks

Most DCs would agree: Chiropractic is about health. However, while our business is promoting health, patients initially come to us complaining of pain and/or disease.

Yes, we do adjust, and many of us even teach posture rehab, and we do help patients from athletes seeking better performance enhance to boomers seeking wellness, but society at large does not fully appreciate our value for wellness & performance.

At some point most patients are making a choice about taking drugs, even when seeing you and even if they do not always admit it. So, while DCs do not prescribe drugs, it behooves us to be aware of the messages about drugs targeting our patients, as well as society at large.

Intelligently prescribed medication can truly cure many illnesses, but drug abuse is rampant…and I am not talking about illegal drugs. While potentially lifesaving, the problem with drugs (and the root of much of our professions long time anti-drug stand) is the mistaken philosophy that there is a pill for every ill.

Historically, the role of drawing the line for when drugs are appropriate is usually filled by the allopathic physician, a professional by and large trained to reflexively use prescription pads. However, big Pharma is shifting the PCP’s gatekeeper role to their marketing department with burgeoning budgets for direct to consumer drug ads.

Direct to consumer ad spending for drugs (such as that cute little purple pill) hit an estimated $7.5 BILLION in 2005, up from a mere $2.5 billion in 2000. So, in my opinion, educating people about big Pharma marketing is consistent with our mission of advocating healthy LifeHabits.

In addition, patient injuries from getting the wrong drug are ballooning. There are over 10,000 prescription and 300,000 over-the-counter drugs on the market today, all of which have varied interactions and instructions. A 1999 Institute of Medicine (IOM) study reported 100,000 patient injuries from medication, a finding which spurred the government to spend $50 million on improving patient safety.

In July, 2006 the IOM released another study and reported that in the U.S medication errors serious enough to cause injury occur 1.5 million times a year (a 15 fold increase in the past 7 years!) prompting a recommendation to spend another $100 million on electronic systems and provider education.

My question is this: Is it possible the problem has something to do with the BILLIONS spent annually on direct to consumer drug ads?

If you agree that drug marketing is a problem and want to communicate this message, I suggest you investigate a new documentary DVD- Money Talks: Profits Before Patient Safety.