Abstract

A Disease for Every Pill

Criticizes the pharmaceutical industry for advertising diseases in order to sell drugs. Case of the advertisement of drugs for premenstrual dysphoric disorder, a condition about which it is debated whether it exists; Target of pharmaceutical advertising to young women who are then made to believe they have psychiatric disorders; Report that the pharmaceutical industry in the U.S. spends more than $3 billion a year on direct-to-consumer advertising; Use of advertisements to introduce consumers to previously unheard-of conditions; Claim that pharmaceutical company Lilly used the premenstrual dysphoric disorder to extend its patent on the antidepressant Prozac, renamed and marketed as Sarafem; Claim that advertisements are being used to sell the idea that everyday human experiences are symptoms of medical conditions requiring treatment with drugs; Discussion of the side effects of various drugs, including antidepressants.