• @vrek
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    33 months ago

    I often read arstechnica.com and one thing that annoys me is I often see prescription ads on their site. Most of the time I don’t even know the illness they are trying to cure. Honestly I wonder how effective those ads are. Like who goes to a doctor like “I saw this ad for miracle pill and people at the end were happy. Give me that pill” and the doctor doesn’t go “that’s for an enlarged liver which you don’t have… Why do you want that pill?”

    • @[email protected]
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      23 months ago

      The handful of meds I’ve asked for after having seen any advertising at all, the advertising was incidental. I followed Sunosi for a decade before it was approved and I asked for it. The ads weren’t a part of it.

      I followed the eight hour version of sodium oxybate for about the same amount of time, and ended up disillusioned with it because of the risk of getting no fucking sleep at all if the first dose failed.

      Patients who are able absolutely should follow the promising compounds under development. I had a similar experience with provigil, waaaay back when there was nothing else except methylphenidate.

      DTC advertising needs to go away.

      Patients need to be more informed about the pipeline and current studies.

      Both can be true.