The Real RML:

One of the first major actions of the Bush administration was to allow prescription drugs to advertise on TV.

Ive already noticed doctors in the facility I go to have little signs and notepads and pens all over the place advertising drugs. Sure, you go there for the medical treatment, but the whole time you are there it is like little billboards are there too....promoting more drugs.

Really? Please site where you came up with that. I am sure that drugs have been being advertised for years. Now I admit that W. has been president for a third of my life (scary huh?) but I distinctly remember being in elementary school and my dad (who works in a hospital) came home with a pen shaped like a syringe that my mom wouldn't let me bring to school. So unless you mean the first Bush you have just been hiding in another dimention for all the years before W. By the way, I have no love of this president but I blame him for things he is actually responsible for like gas prices.

Now I sort of agree with you about the advertising on TV. It doesn't make much sense to me since you need a doctor to perscribe it anyway but the way I look at it someone who has something like Restless Leg Syndrome might just think they are crazy. So many people never go to doctors or don't bring up a problem that they might be having because they don't think about it. Or they get so flustered in the doctor's office that they forget during a check up to mention that their legs feel funny or that there is a pulsing in their ear or they have a funny bump/scar/irritation and they might think why bother there is nothing to help them. But then they are watching TV and the commercial describes something that they have and suddenly they think, "hmmm, maybe this isn't normal" then they get it looked at.

However, doctors are very busy people. They can't keep up with all studies about this drug or that drug, expect to see patients and still have a life, you know spouse and kids. A drug rep gives them information about a drug tells them the benefits of it, why it could be better then something else and gives them a reminder, pen/post-it etc. of the name. Now the doctor has the most recent drug for some problem that they can consider using in case other therapies don't work or to try first. It should be partially the responsiblity of the patient to make sure that they are comfortable with whatever they are on and if for whatever reason they are unhappy they should call the doctor right away.

Everyone should have the right to good medical care and I firmly believe in "shopping around" for doctors. I once had a doctor make me cry, I never went to him again. If something about your doctor makes you uncomfortable then switch, if you think he is only prescibing some medication because he gets money for every patient he puts on it, get a new doctor. I think part of the problem is that people just accept the medical care they have and are afraid to complain or discuss their concerns. I switched a few doctors until I found one who took my health concerns seriously.

I might be naive, but I believe that while Drug companies are in a business to make money, (but who isn't?) they are in one of the most important fields because they are really doing what they are doing to help people in the long run. It takes a lot of money to develop a new drug and I would like them to keep doing what they are doing so that we can have better treatments for cancer, autism, alzheimers, ms, asthma, allergies, diabetes, schizophrenia, fibromyalgia, arthritis, and many other diseases probably hundreds I have never even heard of.

Sorry for the rant.