Do you think it's possible that the big pharma's make up non-existent diseases and symptoms to sell their drugs?

Yes. A terrible case. I think it’s hopeless.

I think my puppy has that. :-)

I still suffer from that occasionally. But it’s okay, because my invisible 6’ tall rabbit, Harvey, helps me on those times.

Yes my son had a very severe case of YTD The best thing to do is to just treat the symptoms as they arise. The good news is most children will grow out of it.

Apparently it’s highly contagious. My wife and I have both exhibited symptoms since our son’s infection.

I’m so worried about my grandkids. That describes them to a T.

I know for a fact they hype unnecessary drugs AND exaggerate the hype for signs/symptoms in order to push their drugs. Prime example – yesterday my 11 year old had the sniffles and a low grade fever. The doc wrote a prescription for antibiotics that cost my uneducated grandparents almost $100. I told them that there was NO antibiotic that would “cure” a cold or flu (she was dx’d with the “flu”, which I strongly disagree with). Antibiotics kill bacteria – not viruses. WHY did she get prescribed an antibiotic? This is common practice in Georgia.

@phillis, not to lessen your righteous indignation, but… you didn’t read the link, did you?

That’s label is a bit dramatic for how I feel, but nope, I didn’t. I didn’t even see there was a link. I’ll go back and read it now <tucks tail and slinks off>

Okay, I got it at the first paragraph plus a few more sentences just to see where they were going. The parents suffer from Idiot Syndrome. Why werne’t they treated with a miracle drug, and why hasn’t this miracle drug been made into vaccines for the public?

@phillis, because that would make them qualified to vote intelligently, too. No one seems to want that: No one in government, and no one receiving the benefit of government programs, regulations, and grants. Certainly no voters seem to want it, other than a few cranks like me.

@CyanoticWasp Actually, @phillis Is spot on….The link was a spoof, obviously, but that’s about how it is any more. Having a bad day? Put ‘em on drugs.

@phillis Part of the over prescription of drugs is simply “Defensive” Medicine. Doctors are subjected to massive lawsuits over the smallest things. The only way they can protect themselves is to do everything possible for every diagnosis. IMHO

@CyanoticWasp Damn, I thought I was a cynic! Hmmm…... :)

@Val123 – Thanks! I knew it was on target. It actually did answer the question, so that screw up actually worked out well ;)

@CyanoticWasp I’m thinking…if his grandparents weren’t well educated, maybe they pushed the doctor to “give him something!”? There are way too many people out there who have unquestioning belief that drugs can work miracles….and yet still be harmless somehow.

They’re from the age that thought doctors were gods, Val. That’s all. I’ve seen my grandmother treated HORRIBLY by her doctor. But she refuses to accept that the Patient Bill of RIghts is necessary, or that it even applies to her.

@phillis WE DON’T HAVE TO WHISPER! It’s my thread!! YAY!! My father in law’s doctor is a horrible doctor…yet dad absolutely refuses to consider switching doctors. He’s of that generation that, yeah, thinks doctors and modern medicine are gods and magic. He’s 86. Born in…what, 1926? Back in the day when doctors were paid in chickens, and there was no such thing as antibiotics. In those days Doctors did what they did because they loved it, not because of the money, obviously!

Here is a real life example of a drug company creating a disease to fit the meds.

Seriously, I think there is a lot to the “dope kids up to calm them down” school. But I am willing to believe it is driven more by demand than supply. Children live very unnatural lives that it is no wonder they start to react like overstressed lab rats.

Also adults are kept pharmed up rather than make lifestyle changes that would address pain, sleeplessness, stress and obesity.

@SuperMouse Wow…..

My daughter was given antibiotics and steroids for a year and a half. They thought that she must have bladder infections because she was female, she was 17 at the beginning of all of this, had lower back pain, and they had no other diagnosis that they could come up with. She had CT scans, MRI’s, saw her primary care doctor, 2 urologists, an orthopedic dr., 2 different Urgent Care doctors (same office,different nights), the emergency room, and anybody want to guess what she really had? A deteriorated disc in her back. Nobody had thought to look at her lower back when she kept having lower back pain. She was also given unlimited Vicodin and Percocet. I once asked one of the offices if it seemed strange to her that an 18 year old knew the difference in how Percocet and Vicodin feels after taking. She didn’t think so. My daughter only took those meds if they were needed, by the way, and they were rarely needed.

Yes, no doubt. It’s bullsheit. And while Pot is still illegal doctors are pretty quick to get everyone and their mother addicted to Poison in pill form.

@lfino -—I think they HAD to downplay it. Otherwise, they’d have to answer to someone as to why they issued those prescriptions.

@lfino Hm. Was the back pain once a month?

@phillis Good call. Most people don’t realize that antibiotics are worthless in treating viruses and the pharmaceutical companies like it that way. +GA

@stranger_in_a_strange_land Geez!

@stranger_in_a_strange_land Thank you! Being in the medical field for so long, you learn the little tricks and idiosyncracies of doctors and their motives, not to mention the REAL signs and symptoms behind these things. The parents in this instance that Val offered were just plain idiots.

@Val123 AWESOME!! NO WHISPERING! WOOOHOOO!!

@csimme01 – I am so sorry! I dod not intentionally ignore your post. I never saw it! You do have a point. That is indeed one reason so many prescriptions are written. I don’t think it applies to this case presented by Val, not in the case of my virus-infected daughter, not in Ifino’s case, and not in cases of so many millions of other patients. Sometimes it IS an honest attempt to help patients.

@SuperMouse – great article! Great addition to the thread :)

@Val123, no her pain was pretty much constant.
@phillis, you’re probably right. There were so many doctors prescribing all the time that I don’t think one knew what the next one was doing.