Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Prescription Drugs

Many people are starting to worry about the advertisement of prescription drugs today, people like Senator Jim Geraghty. This article that I found was based on things that he believed. Are perscription drugs being advertised correctly? According to Jim Geraghty, he says that they are not and that commercials often look past or brush over the side affects associated with the drug or the side effects of taking other drugs with this drug. Along with Senator Tom Harkin, Geraghty purposed an amendmant that would cause advertisers to have equal amounts of time informing about the drug's side affects. In a FDA survey 7 out of 10 said that patients were often confused about the risks and benefits of a particular drug. Doctors also stated that they could handle these situations. What do you think? Should there be more informative time given in a commercial about a drug's side effects?

1 comment:

Morgan K said...

I agree, side affects do need to be explained clearly to consumers. However, I do understand why its so hard for distributers to communicate ALL side affects to consumers .. since there are soo many. I dont' see any other way to explain all these side effects, other than just listing them on a breif commercial.. until they obtain the prescription.