Selling sickness: the pharmaceutical industry and disease mongering

摘要

Some forms of "medicalisation" may now be better described as "disease mongering"-extending the boundaries of treatable illness to expand markets for new products. Alliances of pharmaceutical manufacturers, doctors, and patients groups use the media to frame conditions as being widespread and severe. Disease mongering can include turning ordinary ailments into medical problems, seeing mild symptoms as serious, treating personal problems as medical, seeing risks as diseases, and framing prevalence estimates to maximise potential markets. Corporate funded information about disease should be replaced by independent information.