Are drug commercials for doctors or patients?

Do you have ms patients that you deamwith? Has anyone from your office done Lemtrada? Have you heard of it? I did my second dose this year and I’m always curious to see how popular it is considering it’s the equivalent of an atomic bomb going off on your immune system.

We don’t have any patients on it currently but we did get rems certified for it so we can prescribe it. The doctor I work for has a hard time getting patients to get yearly blood work without threatening to stop prescribing their meds anymore. Once a month for 5 years would be impossible with most of them.

However, if I ever got diagnosed with MS it is the treatment I would choose for myself after seeing all the different options.
 
We don’t have any patients on it currently but we did get rems certified for it so we can prescribe it. The doctor I work for has a hard time getting patients to get yearly blood work without threatening to stop prescribing their meds anymore. Once a month for 5 years would be impossible with most of them.

However, if I ever got diagnosed with MS it is the treatment I would choose for myself after seeing all the different options.


Yeah, I won’t lie, doing the monthly bloodwork is a pain in the butt. I have horrible veins so I actually got a port to deal with all the pokes.

As far as I can remember, Lemtrada is pretty much the last option, for the moment. I do know that you have to had failed on two previous treatments to be considered for Lemtrada.. it was my fifth medication. I had failed on the four previous meds. I have low level but very stubborn ms. There’s also so, so much work to do before it..blood tests, updates on immunization, more tests, more pokes. My hpv and cancer were actually found by a routine test.

Anyway, hopefully that is all moot because you will never have to deal with it. Thanks for answering :)
 
I don't understand drug commercials. Doctors HATE being told how to do their job; anytime I have suggested to a doctor a possible cause of my ailment, or a possible avenue for treatment, the response I got was derision and scorn! So if people are watching these commercials and then being prescribed the drugs that they want, I want to know what the secret is! Someone once told me that drug commercials were all about brand recognition because some people only want name brand drugs.

I've never had that problem but I've never asked for a specific drug either.
 
As a patient has a drug commercial ever convinced you to ask your doctor to prescribe you the drug being advertised?

Exactly the opposite, actually - hearing the side effects list at the end of the commercial generally scares me off!! I feel like they just list every single thing that happened to anyone in the study (even if it's highly unlikely or turns out to be unrelated) all together, whereas my own doctor would sort the side effects in likely ones and "lottery-level long shots" before she explained them to me.
 


Most of the world doesn't allow direct to consumer television advertising of drugs. I think they should be banned. First, a doctor should know what drugs are available for any particular disorder or have the sense to send you to a specialist that does. Second, imagine how much better all of us would be if the huge amount of money spent on these ads went into R&D or to offset the cost of some of these drugs for patients. Even if that money went straight into dividends or stayed on the books it would be better since it would likely improve the stock price and all of the funds that have that stock.

Of course the media would hate it and fight it tooth and nail which is why you don't see a lot of politicians pushing it as an agenda.
 
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It's great Ireland does not allow this and I hope it becomes the norm here. I would be curious to know the rate of prescription drugs prescribed here as compared to Ireland? I feel lie everyone I know is one something, multiple somethings!

It's not that long ago it was the norm here as well. Regulations were changed. Who benefited from that?

Anybody see the story on the news last night about companies being able to endlessly renew expired patents on meds here in the U.S., staving off the ability of generic competitors to come to market and customer costs to go down? That's not happening elsewhere around the world, so we pay many, many times more here in the U.S. for drugs the rest of the world does not.
 
As an regular intentional visitor to America, this has always fascinated me about American TV. Here in Ireland the advertising of prescription only drugs is not allowed. Only over the counter medication is allowed to be advertised.

It really fascinates me that the American general public can go to their doctor and ask for a particular brand of prescription medication. Here in Ireland, you go to a doctor and you just get the most appropriate brand of medication.
It’s somewhat new too. I don’t recall seeing those when I was a kid & I’m 40.
 


Exactly the opposite, actually - hearing the side effects list at the end of the commercial generally scares me off!! I feel like they just list every single thing that happened to anyone in the study (even if it's highly unlikely or turns out to be unrelated) all together, whereas my own doctor would sort the side effects in likely ones and "lottery-level long shots" before she explained them to me.
It's a different story though. They list the side effects because they have to-they give the information to the wide public and over the years they have been required to be more transparent than before. It's just like commercials in general where the limitations are listed in tiny tiny fine print. Ugh I remember when I was at the insurance company and people from CA would call in saying "what's this accident forgiveness coverage I want it". Ma'am that is not available in your state. "What do you mean it's not available in my state!? I saw it on the commercial I want that coverage" and then you have to advise them there are fine print, etc.

Your doctor though should be telling you or directing you to a place where the side effects are listed. Can you imagine getting medication and then having a random side effect and being completely caught off guard?

Just to use an example-birth control. Not all birth controls including the various methods have the same side effects. But you really should know all the side effects of each one along with personal habits and your own body to be able to determine which one may be the best for you. And in order to know that you may need to switch to a different one you need to know what side effects there are so you can actually detect that rather than brushing it off.

I do get what you are meaning though.
 
Your doctor though should be telling you or directing you to a place where the side effects are listed.
Oh, she would! She just wouldn't list "water retention" and "death" together when she explained them to me. :scared1: She'd tell me the likely side-effects, and if we both felt they would be less bothersome to me than the original ailment, then she'd go over the things that are extremely rare and would warrant contacting her immediately. I can be a huge worrier and she knows that. I trust her as a professional filter - to keep me grounded and worrying about the right things.
 

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