11 ms·

I guess I'll be the one to go against the grain here. I've seen a lot of doctors over the years, primarily for mental illness, but my experience has served me w

by c3534l 11y ago

I guess I'll be the one to go against the grain here. I've seen a lot of doctors over the years, primarily for mental illness, but my experience has served me well generalizing to normal, physical health. The model of a doctor as a paternal guardian who knows better than you so you should just do as he says is a very bad model. They're as flawed human beings as anyone else and the only person qualified to fight for your best interests is you. Doctors get complacent, lazy and fail to keep up with the latest information unless you press them to do so. You HAVE to stay informed and aware to get the best treatment. Ads can serve an important function of informing patients of new treatment options and if doctors could truely be entrusted with your health without question then there wouldn't be a need to regulate these ads at all since doctors would only be perscribing the best treatments anyway. Medicine works best when it's a two-way, active dialog. In my personal experience anyway.

arawde 11y ago
As someone who also has mental health issues, I want to say I agree. However, I don't think ads are the optimal way for a populace to stay educated. Personally, every medication I've been prescribed has been followed by my own research as to how the medication is designed to work. I will agree though that the relationship between me and my doctor should be a two-way one. I am completely open with my doctor and make it known what i expect out of them, and they are the same with me.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- c3534l 11y ago
  It's not the best solution, but I don't think banning them will do any good. I'm more rebutting the attitude in this thread that medical information is only for your doctor and not you. I don't think you'll get better health outcomes by focusing all of your medical advertising budget on influencing doctors behind the backs of patients. And advertising does serve a legitimate purpose; I knew a woman with restless leg syndrome who had suffered from it for all her life, but a treatment wasn't developed until something like 5 or 10 years ago. She'd have never asked her doctor about it had she not seen the advertising since she had gone without medication for 50 or 60 years at that point.
  - chillwaves 11y ago
    We should just ban profit seeking in health care. It removes the incentive to cheat.

by c3534l 11y ago

arawde 11y ago

As someone who also has mental health issues, I want to say I agree. However, I don't think ads are the optimal way for a populace to stay educated. Personally, every medication I've been prescribed has been followed by my own research as to how the medication is designed to work. I will agree though that the relationship between me and my doctor should be a two-way one. I am completely open with my doctor and make it known what i expect out of them, and they are the same with me.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
c3534l 11y ago
It's not the best solution, but I don't think banning them will do any good. I'm more rebutting the attitude in this thread that medical information is only for your doctor and not you. I don't think you'll get better health outcomes by focusing all of your medical advertising budget on influencing doctors behind the backs of patients. And advertising does serve a legitimate purpose; I knew a woman with restless leg syndrome who had suffered from it for all her life, but a treatment wasn't developed until something like 5 or 10 years ago. She'd have never asked her doctor about it had she not seen the advertising since she had gone without medication for 50 or 60 years at that point.
- chillwaves 11y ago
  We should just ban profit seeking in health care. It removes the incentive to cheat.