Selling Sickness #552

Posting Date: 07/30/2005

Last year the pharmaceutical industry spent over $4 billion advertising drugs to consumers. Drug companies maintain that this educates people about serious health problems like acid reflux, overactive bladder or erectile dysfunction. Is this effort turning us into a nation of patients, popping a pill for every ill? We'll talk with Australian journalist Ray Moynihan about how this issue plays out around the world. We will explore the new field of "evidence-based medicine" as an alternative to advertising-driven prescribing.

Guest: Ray Moynihan, journalist, visiting editor and contributor, British Medical Journal. Co-author, with Alan Cassels: Selling Sickness: How the World's Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All into Patients (Nation Books).

To order a copy of this or any radio show you can call (800) 732-2334. Shows are available on CD for maximum sound quality. The cost, including shipping and handling, is $15. Visa, MasterCard and Discover are accepted, or you can send a check for $15 to: Graedons' People's Pharmacy (Show #, date or topic); PO Box 52027; Durham, NC 27717-2027

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