Yesterday I posted about the accumulating research that Prozac and other anti-depressant medications are being prescribed far too widely as a mood enhancers or stress buster perhaps and are hardly more effective than placebos, except for physical and their drain on patients pocketbooks. Now I would like to call attention to similar reports about cholesterol-lowering statins which do not live up to their claims.

Extensive marketing campaigns by pharmaceutical companies directly to consumers has put pressure on doctors to presceribe them, especially when the time spent on patient visits is so limited these day. Going along with the patient is no doubt the easier road for the pressured phycisian, particularly when the drug companies give them personal incentives to prescribe their products. This is compounded by the fact that drug companies routinely are slow to release negative experimental results, and there is weak regulatory control from the FDA under the present Adminstration.

I believe that that the marketing of prescription drugs directly to consumers through paid commercials and other promotionals by the pharmaceutical companies should be banned and there should be oversight of how Big pharm is "lobbying" the medical profession. Financial grants to the medical profession and "non-profit" research should be redirected through government agencies who have oversight powers and can insight upon standards. The high cost of prescription drugs in the United States, is one of the main health-cost inflators and is either passed on directly to the consumer or passed on through in higher insurance rates. That is not the subject matter of the articles I am posting, just my thoughts about why these latest results are so important.

My original post follows following this update.