For most women, increased appetite, moodiness, and fatigue are normal occurrences during “that time of the month.” But to a pharmaceutical company, those biological happenings are ailments, symptoms of a disorder that can be identified, labeled, and treated with a pill—their pill.
In fact, aches, pains, nervousness, not being in the mood, excessive shopping, chocolate cravings, the desire to move one’s legs, sadness, and other parts of daily life are the new bread and butter for drug companies, who are ever seeking to expand their clientele. No longer in business just to treat the sick, pharmaceutical companies are looking to sell pills to a larger part of the population—the healthy.
Tired, Sleepy, Hungry? There’s a Cure
Disease mongering, which Ray Moynihan and David Henry, authors of Selling Sick, define as “the selling of sickness that widens the boundaries of illness and grows the markets for those who sell and deliver treatments” is pervasive on our society. One textbook example is the controversial disease Fibromyalgia. Last year, two drug makers spent hundreds of millions of dollars to raise awareness about the disease, even though scientists disagree whether the disease is real or not.
Fibromyalgia patients experience pain and fatigue. Although researchers don’t doubt they are in pain, they don’t know what causes the symptoms, which also overlap with other diseases. Because the cause is unknown, definitive treatment is allusive, yet Pfizer and Lilly have heavily marketed their drugs, Lyrica (an anticonvulsant) and Cymbalta (an antidepressant), for the condition, helping to boost sales by hundred of millions over the past two years.
The drug makers argue that they’re trying to educate the medical community and the public about a little known disease. But critics say companies do this to suggest that a large part of the population suffers from the disease when it may only be a small proportion. Marketing for Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) makes it seem as if anyone who’s ever blushed or stammered in public might be a candidate for treatment.
Similarly, critics of disease mongering hold that many of these drug industry-sponsored campaigns take normal functions of life and imply that they’re disease states, suggesting suffering where there really isn’t any. Emotions like anxiety are labeled as General Anxiety Disorder, fatigue is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, feeling overwhelmed warrants an anti-depressant.
Other diseases heavily marketed by the drug companies are so obscure or common that they’re easily spoofable: restless leg syndrome, shopaholic, and attention deficit disorder.
Creating Disease
The process by which a disease is created or redefined isn’t difficult to grasp. A company wants to create a new market for a pre-existing drug, likely because a drug patent is about to expire. Instead of letting this happen, they extend the life of the patent by finding a new use, or indication, for the drug. Without a defined disease already out there, they go looking for something that will fit—oftentimes a hazily-defined psychological disorder or “lifestyle” ailment (something superficial or not life threatening). They hire a PR company to begin raising public awareness about the “disease.” Industry-sponsored patient advocacy groups are formed, press releases are sent to newspapers (who interview patients from the advocacy groups), companies fund studies to back their claims, and TV commercials are made. Medical conferences and grants are given to research and discuss the disease. Doctors, who have been given grant money from the companies, back up the disease and its need for a cure; celebrities who’ve signed contracts with the industry go on TV and do the same. Consumers wonder if they’re going undiagnosed.
Female Maladies
This was the case in 1998, when Lilly was about to lose its patent on fluoxetine, otherwise known as Prozac. Instead of letting this happen, they turned their attention to a condition called “premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD).” Many scientists questioned the validity of this as an actual disease. Although the PMDD is in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders—the go-to guide for psychiatric disorders—it’s listed as “under evaluation,” meaning it is not yet accepted in the medical community.
