How do the drug companies persuade doctors to prescribe their drugs? Well one company, Purdue, held over 7,000 seminars last year to “inform” doctors about “pain management”, which, of course, consists of prescribing its particularly powerful drug called “Oxycontin”. Why do the doctors go to these seminars? How about free weekend travel and hotel accommodations, to Florida and other lovely locales? (In December, United States attorneys in Maine, persuaded Purdue to stop paying for the doctor’s travel expenses to these seminars and it agreed do so.)
A spokesperson for Eli Lilly said that the company asked women and physicians about a treatment for PMDD and they told Eli Lilly that they wanted a drug with it’s own identity for this special problem. I’ll bet the same focus group told them they wanted to squander $100 a month on medicines that treat imaginary illnesses.
David Rubinow, Clinical Director of the National Institute of Mental Health, says “there is a very high degree of false positive self-assessments– women assume they are suffering from PMS or PMDD when, in fact, they are not.” If you were an investor, would you bet on that dynamic? I would.
Interesting side-effect: if Eli Lilly prevails– you can bet they are using all their influence to get “studies” that show that PMDD really exists– we will soon see court cases in which a woman claims that she shop-lifted or drove too fast or neglected a child, because of PMDD. The court will then hear that Americans spend more than $1 billion a year on treatment for this “disease”, even if it isn’t listed as one in the DSM, and will be duly impressed and find the woman not-guilty, or award somebody a hundred million dollars in damages or whatever. Then Eli Lilly will point to the court cases and say, “see– even our courts recognize that PMDD exists!” Thus you have self-fulfilling prophecy.