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Selling Sickness: How the World's Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All Into Patients
Thirty years ago, Henry Gadsden, the head of Merck, one of the world's largest drug companies, told Fortune magazine that he wanted Merck to be more like chewing gum maker Wrigley's. It had long been his dream to make drugs for healthy people so that Merck could "sell to everyone." Gadsden's dream now drives the marketing machinery of the most profitable industry...more
Paperback, 245 pages
Published
June 23rd 2006
by Nation Books
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I read this book as an assignment for my critical thinking class. Now I have to write an essay critiquing both the validity of the argument and its soundness. So this review is a rough collection of my thoughts on Selling Sickness.
If you are predisposed to accept Moynihan and Cassels' argument--i.e., if you already agree with their position--then this book will merely enhance your disgust for the pharmaceutical industry. However, the book is still a useful educational tool, for it...more
If you are predisposed to accept Moynihan and Cassels' argument--i.e., if you already agree with their position--then this book will merely enhance your disgust for the pharmaceutical industry. However, the book is still a useful educational tool, for it...more
a little slow and not as powerful as it could be. Exposes the horrifying links between physicians and pharmacuetical companies, as well as the soaring use of perscription drugs in our society. "Got a hang nail, we got a drug for you!"
Easy to read book that shows how pharmaceutical companies are deliberately, as the title tells us, turning us into patients. Excellent research, easy to read, it tells us how most hypertensive pills will create more problems than they will solve (and you'd probably do better by exercising more and eating with greater care) - how HRT is dangerous (thank heavens this is reinforced, those drugs are dangerous. I have had not a single menopausal symptom and I suspect it is because I have for years ha...more
As a young neurologist, I was shocked by the fact that drug companies make new diseases. It is very difficulty to tell normal and anbnormal in the medical field, especially when physicians deal with psychiatric problems like depression, anxiety, and nervousness. That's why physicians make diagnosis criteria such as DSM-4 or 5. I has believed that these criteria are based on scientific evidences and opinions from independent expert groups. But after reading this book, I can say with a little exa...more
A quick, interesting read. Not much new info at all for me as a reader so it felt boring at times. Also, written in 2004. Always amazing how quickly info gets dated in the medical field. Would recommend to anyone interested in a basic understanding of the "creation" of illness and the true effectiveness of drug therapies.
Liked the idea of unmet-need versus unneed-met, especially in light of how many people go untreated in our medical system.
Liked the idea of unmet-need versus unneed-met, especially in light of how many people go untreated in our medical system.
Pill-poppers beware! Most of the prescription drugs taken by Americans are unnecessary or so the authors contend. They also make a good case for disbelieving the diagnosis of the most common "diseases" which lead doctors to prescribe those needless drugs. By lowering the normal values or making the symptoms more vague, millions more Americans are suddenly "sick" and need their pills.
The chapters discuss the most common or popular drugs for the following condition...more
The chapters discuss the most common or popular drugs for the following condition...more
This book is an enlightening journey into the pharmaceutical industry and their attempts to make more money. This book does a great job of giving the information and letting you decide for yourself. My favorite part was that they showed how the pharmaceutical companies are treating risk factors as conditions and pushing medications as treatments for these "risk factors", even when the side effects of these drugs can be more severe than the risk factor itself. This is a great book for a...more
Very good read. Very enlightening. Made me think a lot about medicine and the pharmaceutical industry.
A must read for anyone interested in the world of medicine today.
A must read for anyone interested in the world of medicine today.
I suggest reading this book if you are on or considering taking drugs for high blood pressure or high cholesterol or osteoporosis.
Before you dismiss this book, know this was reading my wife did for her advanced nursing degree.
Before you dismiss this book, know this was reading my wife did for her advanced nursing degree.
This book had a lot of potential, but I was really disappointed by the content. Each chapter discussed a different "disease" and had an interesting corresponding selling technique used by big pharma companies. However, after that, I thought the content was somewhat hard to follow. Might be worth reading if you are currently on or are in danger of being prescribed meds for the following: high cholesterol, high blood pressure, hormone replacement therapy, osteoporosis, ADD, or social a...more
Very interesting take on how the advertising of medicine is actually creating new conditions/diseases that the public buys into as a real condition or disease. What really struck me was the way the advertising and pharmaceutical companies will play with the number to make you think that whatever condition they are discussing is more prevalent and serious than it actually is (or that their medicines are more effective than they actually are).
This book pissed me off, which I'm taking as a good thing. If you've noticed all the commericals on TV trying to convince you that you need a drug to treat "restless leg syndrome" or some other type of problem, read this first. Drug development has been wonderful in many ways, but it has a nasty side when the profits are so high, and when we all live so long. Drug companies make big $$ when they get us to take the same drugs for years.
This book gives us reason to think before taking any and all medications that doctors prescribe for us.
This book basically confirmed all of my suspicions about the way huge drug companies operate. I would recommend this to anyone looking for some perspective on the way these companies influence doctors, patients, and unfortunately the FDA.
uses evidence-based research to dispel some of the most-used treatment options for the first world's common health problems. depressing, but good. it's hard to think for one's self in a pharma-dominated world.
This has been a great springboard for me in writing articles. The references are extensive and the first hand accounts are eye-opening.
I wrote a massive review and then somehow deleted it. Here's the summary: GREAT BOOK. READ IT.
first book i've read on big pharma. an eye-opener.
Poboxy
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Ray Moynihan is a journalist, author, documentary-maker and academic researcher based in Australia.
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