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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 19 of 19. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by linkadge on January 29, 2011, at 8:16:24
"You know you can feel the emotional symptoms of depression, but did you know you can feel physical symptoms too?"
This really pisses me off. Notice how the commercial uses the wording "you". Its subtle, but its specific. Now the commercial is not talking to those who have depression. It is talking to "you", i.e. **anybody and everybody who is listening to the commerical**.
When you watch it, the wording essentially forces you to believe these symptoms apply to you. This is just wrong. Especially since cymbalta is definately *not* for everbody.
Linkadge
Posted by phillipa on January 29, 2011, at 10:46:53
In reply to My beef with cymbalta commercial!!, posted by linkadge on January 29, 2011, at 8:16:24
Good advertising personalize the message like doing ebay when I post an item I usually include "your new" hence the person starts to think in terms of it being theirs already. That's my take on it. Phillipa
Posted by linkadge on January 29, 2011, at 12:02:36
In reply to Re: My beef with cymbalta commercial!! » linkadge, posted by phillipa on January 29, 2011, at 10:46:53
Thats a good point phillipa
Posted by phillipa on January 29, 2011, at 13:02:43
In reply to Re: My beef with cymbalta commercial!! » phillipa, posted by linkadge on January 29, 2011, at 12:02:36
I especially get a kick out of the ones for erectile dysfunction. As they mention going blind as a side effect. I remember years before your time link that if you "touched yourself" they said you'd go blind and now look what on the commercials targeted to that generation.Phillipa
Posted by europerep on January 29, 2011, at 13:48:10
In reply to Re: My beef with cymbalta commercial!! » linkadge, posted by phillipa on January 29, 2011, at 13:02:43
Commercials for antidepressants - and commercials for any prescription drugs really - are a complete distortion of the way a good patient-physician relationship should work. An absence of a ban on advertising is nothing but a crystal-clear indicator of how much politics are permeated by pharmaceutical lobbying.. honestly, I find that sh[*]t disturbing.
Posted by sigismund on January 29, 2011, at 14:49:02
In reply to Re: My beef with cymbalta commercial!!, posted by europerep on January 29, 2011, at 13:48:10
I bet they don't advertise Dilaudid.
Posted by morgan miller on January 29, 2011, at 22:44:02
In reply to My beef with cymbalta commercial!!, posted by linkadge on January 29, 2011, at 8:16:24
Yeah those damn Abilify commercials too. They all bug me, even the old jumping happy face Zoloft commercials. I just don't think psychiatric medications have a place on television advertising. I guess I feel the same way about the ED drugs and others. F*ck*ng pharmaceutical industry.
Posted by Dr. Bob on January 29, 2011, at 22:56:08
In reply to Re: My beef with cymbalta commercial!!, posted by europerep on January 29, 2011, at 13:48:10
> honestly, I find that sh[*]t disturbing.
Please don't use language that could offend others.
But please don't take this personally, either, this doesn't mean I don't like you or think you're a bad person, and I'm sorry if this hurts you.
If you turn off automatic asterisking, you have more freedom to express yourself, but you're also responsible for your language.
More information about posting policies is in the FAQ:
http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/faq.html#civil
http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/faq.html#asterisking
http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/faq.html#enforceFollow-ups regarding these issues should be redirected to Psycho-Babble Administration.
Thanks,
Bob
Posted by jedi on January 30, 2011, at 1:27:29
In reply to Re: My beef with cymbalta commercial!!, posted by morgan miller on January 29, 2011, at 22:44:02
> Yeah those damn Abilify commercials too. They all bug me, even the old jumping happy face Zoloft commercials. I just don't think psychiatric medications have a place on television advertising. I guess I feel the same way about the ED drugs and others. F*ck*ng pharmaceutical industry.
Morgan,
I agree 100%. Advertising psychotropic medications in the mass media is a joke. I was talking to my sister about my residual dysthymia even while taking Nardil. She says "Why don't you just take Abilify?" Like this is going to just magically work as an augmentation for anything. I was so taken back by this since my sister works in a hospital buying equipment and devices for surgeons and spent many years as a transcriptionist. She actually has 100 times the medical knowledge of most laypersons. But just because of some ad on TV, she thought this medication would work for me.Well, I have taken Abilify. It gave me the only case of akathisia I have ever had. I was literally crawling out of my skin on this medication and I will never touch it again. Sure, it will benefit some people. But compare the number of people who will actually benefit from the medication to the number of people that see these commercials and get false hope.
The power of advertising. It is truly amazing.
Jedi
Posted by floatingbridge on January 30, 2011, at 3:44:56
In reply to My beef with cymbalta commercial!!, posted by linkadge on January 29, 2011, at 8:16:24
Linkage and all, sadly and ridiculously, this is so true. I finally stopped watching t.v. because I couldn't take the argumentative and cynical stance of the self-talk I'd adopt during shows and commercials. Ugh.
When I first met my current pdoc, I said, 'I'm bipolar nos' (because some doctor said so about ten years ago) so he tries
Abilify. I come home, and my husband says, 'oh, so that's what that stuff is for.' (At the time, abilify was advertised showing lots of artist-types doing metal
sculpture, for instance, and not saying much more than, like, this young, radiant man removing his welding helmet, then saying how he had regained his productivity. No mention of the BP
words at first. Very hip and cool. Like you'd want to take it along with "your" sleek new iPod.) (My asterisks are on. Will the blowing of raspberries be permitted?)My MIL and FIL are watching some drug
commercial. Side effects include blah, blah, blah, and sexual dysfunction. 'I
wonder what sexual dysfunction could be,' MIL says. Pause. FIL, 'What do you think?' A much longer pause. 'Ooohh.' She says and begins laughing, a little embarrassed.Europrep, are you subjected to such asininities where you are?
Posted by linkadge on January 30, 2011, at 7:35:29
In reply to Re: My beef with cymbalta commercial!! » morgan miller, posted by jedi on January 30, 2011, at 1:27:29
They're really gunning it with the "painful physical symptoms of depression". Why? Because everyday aches and pains are very common. If they can just get these people thinking "hey, thats a symptom of depression!!", I'm depressed, I need cymbalta.
I think the thing too is that the commercials are set up to try and (supposedly) "teach" you something....."did you know that depression...."
Linkadge
Posted by ed_uk2010 on January 30, 2011, at 13:48:40
In reply to Re: please be civil - Why?? - » emme, posted by floatingbridge on January 30, 2011, at 11:29:09
Fortunately, it is illegal to advertise prescription medicines to the general public in the UK. We do not have 'samples' of new medications either. Samples are a way of making patients feel like they are getting a good deal when they are actually being put in a situation where they will soon be receiving an expensive new medication. In most cases, they could do equally well on something older and much less expensive.
The advertising of psych meds to the public, especially things like antipsychotics, is particularly inappropriate.
Advertising is one of the reasons why the use of expensive new medicines in the US instead of older cheaper (but similar) products is grossly excessive. For example, first-line use of Cymbalta rather than generic sertraline (Zoloft) for moderate depression.
Posted by floatingbridge on January 30, 2011, at 14:09:06
In reply to Advertising of prescription meds to the public, posted by ed_uk2010 on January 30, 2011, at 13:48:40
ed, if my first AD had been Cymbalta, I don't know what I would have done. That is seriously strong stuff (for me...).
My gp was just tossing Lyrica packets at me last week....
Abilify was the very first med my current pdoc tried. He first asked if my insurance would cover it (he's really a lovely man) then pulled out those packets.
As they say in the states (and
elsewhere?), the first one is free.Oh we haven't mentioned this yet; commercials for some PR spun or hipped up med closing with, "Ask your doctor if [] is right for you."
Posted by floatingbridge on January 30, 2011, at 14:33:44
In reply to Re: Omg. why I don't have a t.v. » europerep, posted by floatingbridge on January 30, 2011, at 14:28:08
Don't let this go to your head or anything-- not that I'm worried; you seem impervious to this sort of influence....
....but here is another fine example of your initiation of a lively thread.
Thanks.
fb
Posted by linkadge on January 30, 2011, at 15:08:58
In reply to Advertising of prescription meds to the public, posted by ed_uk2010 on January 30, 2011, at 13:48:40
>For example, first-line use of Cymbalta rather >than generic sertraline (Zoloft) for moderate >depression.
I think effexor is clinically superior to cymbalta anyway - its generic in candada
Linkadge
Posted by linkadge on January 30, 2011, at 15:17:51
In reply to linkage » floatingbridge, posted by floatingbridge on January 30, 2011, at 14:33:44
>Don't let this go to your head or anything-- not >that I'm worried; you seem impervious to this >sort of influence....
Thanks, but its not as if I am the first one to point out the problem with this sort of thing. I just thought this commercial kind of crossed the line with the use of the words "you" rather than "those with depression".
Linkadge
Posted by floatingbridge on January 30, 2011, at 16:05:12
In reply to Re: linkage, posted by linkadge on January 30, 2011, at 15:17:51
Absolutely, Link. It's insidious and leads to rather haphazard, poorly informed prescription practices of (fricken!) potent medications with some dangerous or at least harmful results.
This is one of the ways I feel medicine has been degraded on the doctor/patient interface. Docs are reduced to reading pamphlets, abstracts, and blocking time
out of overfilled schedules (oh, insurance
) to meet with med reps. In my experience, perfectly lovely people who
happen to be doctors are regularly prescribing medication they do not
understand. So I was happy you started this thread, not crediting you with particular insight into the phenomena--though I think your kickoff was a sterling example.(I have lots to say about this--sorry for the barrage. Not only am I having to
navigate for myself--w/the help of a great pdoc and PB--I remember how, as a child and young adult, doctors bungled or harmed my mother--her health was very complex. Once she had a heart
attack induced by by--oh crud, what's it called--dialysis at a shift change.)A good friend. I met her as she was completing her psychiatry degree. When she began work, she was sooo disenchanted by feeling like she had 15 mins per patient and her main job was to act as a gateway and gatekeeper for controlled substances. She despised the reps constant upbeat, white-teethed, highly sculpted smiles, and endless visits and pleasantries masking the pressure to adopt their meds as some panacea for all
her patients. Their gift baskets; buying
lunch for the office; so much food that she would take it home to her family rather than throw it away. And the
patients who really did abuse and would tell her anything. She'd have to protect herself. And them. She is very idealistic.I better stop here.
Best to you,
fb
Posted by Dr. Bob on January 30, 2011, at 19:59:30
In reply to Re: please be civil » europerep, posted by Dr. Bob on January 29, 2011, at 22:56:08
> Follow-ups regarding these issues should be redirected to Psycho-Babble Administration.
Here's a link:
http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20110117/msgs/978322.html
Thanks,
Bob
Posted by floatingbridge on January 30, 2011, at 22:20:41
In reply to Redirect: administrative issues, posted by Dr. Bob on January 30, 2011, at 19:59:30
This is the end of the thread.
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