Pharmaceutical companies inventing disorders (was: Asperger)

[Thomas Shaddack]

General anxiety disorder. Bah. People are stressed out, that's all - it's
unlikely there is any organic cause that would have to be treated by
drugs. So instead of trying to figure out how to make the society more
human-friendly, just label the symptoms as a "disorder" and drug the
affected humans back to the required level of happiness and productivity.
And drug their unruly kids (for whom they don't have enough time because
they have to make their current owners^H^H^H^H^H^Hemployers richer) back
to the required level of obedience. Pharm-corps 2, humans 0, the game
continues, the show must go on.


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 17 May 2003 14:55:11 -0700
Subject: Censored Alerts
From: Peter Phillips <peter.phillips at SONOMA.EDU>
To: project-censored-L at SONOMA.EDU, prime at freespeech.org, dansc at yahoogroups.com
Cc: censored2 at SONOMA.EDU, censored at SONOMA.EDU

Project Censored: An Inside Look at Independent News

Edited by Katie Sims


<SNIP>

Inventing Disorders

Pharmaceutical companies are on a quest to find a mental illness, sponsor
public awareness campaigns for the disease, and to sell the drug to cure
it, according to investigative journalist Brendan Koerner. Such a quest
required precise strategies to seek FDA approval of a drug for new uses
while increasing the profile of a hidden epidemic named general anxiety
disorder.
Though marketing disease rather than selling a drug is not a recent
development, Koerner argues that "for pharmaceutical companies, marketing
existing drugs for new uses makes perfect sense" and that GlaxoSmithKline,
manufacturer of the antidepressant Paxil, had executed covert maneuvers in
inventing illnesses to boost revenue sales of their drug.
The article suggests that the chronology of events is no accident. Paxil
was approved for use around the time the Cohn & Wolf GAD ad campaign hit
the streets. The Cohn & Wolf campaign put the disease in the public
spotlight. Famous doctors and academics in the mental illness field were
bribed to acknowledge the wide spread hidden epidemic. Popular press
assisted in promoting the effectiveness of the drug.
The success of the Cohn & Wolfe campaign is traced to the creation of
supporting alliances and coalitions. They connect disease experts and
researches on mental illnesses to journalists, effectively to aid the flow
of disease awareness and validity of the ad campaigns.
Synopsis: Daryl Khoo
Source: Mother Jones, July/August 2002, "Disorders Made to Order" by
Brendan I. Koerner

<SNIP>