Well, the US govt took the prohibitions off drug advertising in the mid-90s and now it's a >6 billion-a-year industry. Just the ads and promotions, that is.
All those ads say that pills work for all range of problems (even imaginary ones that the drug makers made up to sell more pills - such as pre-menstrual dysphoric disorder, to sell renamed Prozac and renew their patent).
Those ads weren't there before. The ads still aren't shown in Europe, where the real drugs are beating the placebo effect (the article mentions trials in France and Italy where diazepam wins; in the US, diazepam fails against the placebo).
Drug advertising is simply not legal in most parts of the EU.
They don't think that has something to do with it? Ads affect belief - maybe nobody says "Oh, well now I believe xyz will cure me," because they pretend to be immune to advertising, but if you're surrounding by messaging that pill = cure, you are going to eventually believe it as it is absorbed as cultural knowledge. Just like low-fat = healthy has become a "fact" that "everyone knows."
I was shocked that the article barely even made a nod to this, and didn't follow it to the its conclusion.
I think it's hilarious that the drug co's went along thinking that they won big with that repeal of consumer protection laws, and that their own exploitation of known human weakness is causing their drugs to be less effective than sugar pills.
All those ads say that pills work for all range of problems (even imaginary ones that the drug makers made up to sell more pills - such as pre-menstrual dysphoric disorder, to sell renamed Prozac and renew their patent).
Those ads weren't there before. The ads still aren't shown in Europe, where the real drugs are beating the placebo effect (the article mentions trials in France and Italy where diazepam wins; in the US, diazepam fails against the placebo).
Drug advertising is simply not legal in most parts of the EU.
They don't think that has something to do with it? Ads affect belief - maybe nobody says "Oh, well now I believe xyz will cure me," because they pretend to be immune to advertising, but if you're surrounding by messaging that pill = cure, you are going to eventually believe it as it is absorbed as cultural knowledge. Just like low-fat = healthy has become a "fact" that "everyone knows."
I was shocked that the article barely even made a nod to this, and didn't follow it to the its conclusion.
I think it's hilarious that the drug co's went along thinking that they won big with that repeal of consumer protection laws, and that their own exploitation of known human weakness is causing their drugs to be less effective than sugar pills.