Three decades ago, the head of one of the world's leading drug companies made some remarkably candid comments. Wishing his company was more like the chewing gum maker Wrigley's, the chief executive of Merck said it had long been his dream to make drugs for healthy people, and sell to everyone' That dream now drives the marketing machinery of one of the most profitable industries on the planet. Using their dominating influence in medical science, drug companies are marketing fear in order to re-define human illness. In alliance with company-friendly doctors and sponsored patient groups, the all-powerful pharmaceutical industry is helping to widen the very definitions of disease, in order to expand markets for its drugs. With compelling clarity, Selling Sickness reveals how the ups and downs of daily life are becoming mental disorders, and common complaints are being transformed into frightening conditions. Shyness is Social Anxiety Disorder, PMS is a psychiatric illness called PMDD, and active children now have ADHD. As more and more ordinary people are turned into patients, drug companies move ever closer to that dream of selling to everyone.
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Review:
"Ray Moynihan and Alan Cassels examine how the drug industry has transformed the way we think about physical and mental health and turned more and more of us each year into customers."
Synopsis:
"Selling Sickness" reveals how widening the boundaries of illness and lowering the threshold for treatments is creating millions of new patients and billions in new profits, in turn threatening to bankrupt national healthcare systems all over the world. As more and more ordinary life becomes medicalised, the industry moves ever closer to Gadsen's dream: 'selling to everyone'.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherAllen & Unwin
- Publication date2005
- ISBN 10 1741145791
- ISBN 13 9781741145793
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages274
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Rating