Friday, January 31, 2014

Selling Drugs

Not sick, well we have just the illness for you ...

Do you have undiagnosed hypothyroidism? Is your thyroid making you fat?  Hypothyroidism could be causing  stress, depression and chronic pain.
Synthroid, the thyroid supplement drug  enjoyed almost 25 percent growth last year and accounted for $153 million during the same quarter. Synthroid is the nation's leading thyroid supplement drug despite going off patent decade ago, because it is widely perceived as more stable than competitor and generic versions of the drug. Abbvie its manufacturer has set up the "National Academy of Hypothyroidism."

Do you have non-24 hour sleep wake disorder? “Struggling to keep up because not "sleeping through the night.Sound familiar? You're not alone!" "Could You Have Non-24?" There are only 146 citations for the disorder in the entire U.S. National Library of Medicine. The drug company Vanda have Non-24, Hetlioz.  Hetlioz is said to be chemically related to the sleeping pill marketed as Rozerem (Ramelteon).  on the web-site, it says "The key symptoms of Non-24 are the inability to sleep or stay asleep and a powerful urge to sleep during the day" with no mention of the accompanying blindness which is a cause of it.  A longer list on the site mentions waking up "groggy," being "less productive than usual at work or at school," relationships that "are strained," "sluggishness and forgetfulness," mood that is "affected" and frustration "because no one seems to understand what you're going through," and also again it doesn't mention it is mostly associated with blindness.

Then there was shift work sleep disorder. "Do you work a nontraditional work schedule?" asked the ads for Cephalon's stimulant Nuvigil. "Do you struggle to stay awake?" You may be suffering from Shift Work Sleep Disorder! Soon there was a website called the Wake-Up Squad to sell the disease. The Wake-Up Squad is "on a mission to lead the fight against Shift Work Disorder," it announced, offering facts and myths about the disease and a big red headline asking, "Are You At Risk?"
SOYMB has frequently reported on the health risks of working shifts but the remedy is not a magical pill or swallowing the claims of the pharmaceutical industry.

Capitalism will sell you anything, even a made-up illness. We won't bother relating the tales of the medicalisation of high spirited children.

From here

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