Posted by Ktemene on October 2, 2005, at 14:07:53
In reply to direct-to-consumer marketing: effective? helpful?, posted by AmyHarmon on September 29, 2005, at 20:31:26
> Hi, all. I'm a reporter with the New York Times. Some of you may remember an earlier post I made about the story I'm working on about the growing number of people who feel empowered to self-diagnose their psychiatric needs and self-prescribe their own remedies. One question I have is whether direct-to-consumer marketing of drugs has made a difference in this regard. I'd be curious to know, has anyone here tried a drug (whether officially prescribed or not) because of a commercial they saw about it? And did it live up to its billing?
> amyI've never tried a psychiatric drug because I saw a commercial about it and I cannot imagine doing so. I was once influenced to try a poison ivy lotion because I saw a commercial about it (and the lotion didn't work). But I would never try something as potentially harmful as a psychiatric drug just because of a commercial. If commercials for psychiatric drugs have any influence on me, it is negative. For instance, I take Lunesta, but I am appalled by the Lunesta commercials, and if all I knew about Lunesta were the information in the commercials, I would refuse to take it. I first heard about Lunesta on Psycho-Babble, many months before it came to the market. When my psychiatrist suggested that I take it, I searched the Psycho-Babble archives (and other places) for leads on information sources about Lunesta and about alternative insomnia medications. From tracking down those leads and reading about the experiences of other people I learned something about Lunesta and its side effects and what to expect from it. Of course I didn't learn as much as a psychiatrist would know. But I did learn enough to ask my psychiatrist questions and to have a reasonably intelligent discussion with him about Lunesta and some alternative medications. And after discussing these questions with my psychiatrist I agreed with him that Lunesta might be a good medication for me. The result was that my psychiatrist gave me a prescription for Lunesta and I did a one-month trial of Lunesta which my psychiatrist and I agreed was successful. And so I continue to take Lunesta, despite the horrible commercials. And I post about my experience on Psycho-Babble, in the hope that others get some small benefit from it.
Perhaps I am misreading your post, but I really think you have the wrong idea about Psycho-Babble if you imagine it is a forum for people who want to self-diagnose and self-prescribe for their own psychiatric disorders. There might be a handful of people here who do that, but most of us are far too ill and much too serious about getting well to play Russian roulette with psychiatric mediations. Most of us here discovered Psycho-Babble because our doctors had already prescribed a dozen different drugs and treatments that were ineffective, and we were seeking information about what helped other people get well. Virtually all of us here have a treatment resistant psychiatric illness- an illness that is exceedingly painful and debilitating and that has a high mortality rate. We need to be proactive about our illness and work with our doctors if we are to have any hope of getting well. Some of us here have a hard time finding doctors who will work with us, either because of lack of adequate medical insurance or for some other reason. But no one here wants to be in that situation. None of us feels 'empowered' because we don't have doctors who will work with us. Self-medication is a controversial issue that people in this community sometimes discuss. If you want to know what people in this community think about self-medication, you can begin with the discussions hyperlinked in the FAQs section ‘How should I decide what medication to take?’: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/faq.html#decide
In your first post you said that you wanted to document “an emerging medical culture in which people rely on their own instincts and knowledge gleaned from the collective wisdom in communities like the Psycho-Babble…” I think a change has emerged over the last 30 years in the patient doctor relationship, at least in the United States. My father was a doctor, and I can remember that the attitude his patients held toward him was close to downright worship. His patients never questioned his wisdom. They never questioned at all. My father was a very good doctor, but his patients’ attitude of silent reverence really made my father’s job harder. And it made it easier for those patients to be duped by quack doctors. Things have changed since then. Most doctors these days expect their patients to ask questions and to seek out information and even to make suggestions about their medical care. My father would have fainted if one of his patients had made a suggestion concerning their own medical treatment. But I’ve felt very comfortable making suggestions both to my pdoc and to my regular doctor. Often my doctors think my suggestion is a bad idea and they explain why. Sometimes they think it is a good idea and we try it. To my mind, this is exactly the way it should be. It is after all my body we are talking about. But this sort of thing is quite different from self-diagnosing and self-prescribing. It seems to me that diagnosing yourself and prescribing your own meds is a little like stitching together your own parachute and jumping out of a plane. I guess it’s fine if someone wants to do that. But it’s a long way down and my preference would always be to have a professional make my parachute. This doesn’t mean I wouldn’t inspect the parachute I’m getting from a professional. I would, and if I saw a big hole in it I’d expect the professional to give me a really good explanation for why that hole was there. But there is a big difference between the people who want to inspect their parachutes before they jump and the people who want to make their own parachutes and jump. Psycho-Babble is an enormous help to the first group. Maybe it serves the second group as well- I wouldn’t know. But I think you have created a certain amount of discomfort in this community because you don’t seem to be distinguishing between the two groups. And the truth is that the purpose of this community isn’t to serve either group. The purpose of this community is exactly what it says at the top of the page. Psycho-Babble is for mutual support and education. And people who are struggling with psychiatric illness need all the support and education we can get. It’s a long way down.
poster:Ktemene
thread:561090
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050927/msgs/561954.html