Books like this could save your life and the lives of your loved ones, and can certainly help to avoid much unnecessary pain and damage. There's valuable information here, from an excellent investigative journalist.

Everyone should know about this book, as well as similarly worthwhile books like The Truth about the Drug Companies, Dirty Medicine, Racketeering In Medicine, The Great Cholesterol Con, Heart Frauds, How to Protect Your Heart from Your Doctor, Confessions of a Medical Heretic (amusingly written, by a medical doctor, as well as scandalous), The Medical Mafia (also by a medic, similar theme as Confessions and passionately but badly written), Cancer: Why We're Still Dying to Know the Truth, The Cancer Industry, Cancer is Not a Disease, Why We will Never Win the War on AIDS and the many books against vaccination, the biggest scam that is maiming and killing the coming generations.

It's too bad that most buyers of this book already have at least an inkling that "modern medicine" is a con. They are already "converts" whereas everyone needs to know what is going on but most don't even know this information is available - yet it could save their lives and the lives of loved ones and will certainly prevent much unnecessary pain and damage.

There's valuable information here, from an excellent investigative journalist. Everyone should know about this book, as well as similarly worthwhile books like The Truth about the Drug Companies, Dirty Medicine, Racketeering In Medicine, The Great Cholesterol Con, Heart Frauds, How to Protect Your Heart from Your Doctor, Confessions of a Medical Heretic (amusingly written, by a medical doctor, as well as scandalous), The Medical Mafia (also by a medic, similar theme as Confessions and passionately but badly written), Cancer: Why We're Still Dying to Know the Truth, The Cancer Industry, Cancer is Not a Disease, Why We will Never Win the War on AIDS and the many books against vaccination, the biggest scam that is maiming and killing the coming generations.

It's too bad that most buyers of this book already have at least an inkling that "modern medicine" is a con. They are already "converts" whereas everyone needs to know what is going on but most don't even know this information is available - yet it could save their lives and the lives of loved ones and will certainly prevent much unnecessary pain and damage.

There's valuable information here, from an excellent investigative journalist. Everyone should know about this book, as well as similarly worthwhile books like The Truth about the Drug Companies, Dirty Medicine, Racketeering In Medicine, The Great Cholesterol Con, Heart Frauds, How to Protect Your Heart from Your Doctor, Confessions of a Medical Heretic (amusingly written, by a medical doctor, as well as scandalous), The Medical Mafia (also by a medic, similar theme as Confessions and passionately but badly written), Cancer: Why We're Still Dying to Know the Truth, The Cancer Industry, Why We will Never Win the War on AIDS and the many books against vaccination, the biggest scam that is maiming and killing the coming generations.

It's too bad that most buyers of this book already have at least an inkling that "modern medicine" is a con. They are already "converts" whereas everyone needs to know what is going on but most don't even know this information is available - yet it could save their lives and the lives of loved ones and will certainly prevent much unnecessary pain and damage.

There's valuable information here, from an excellent investigative journalist. Everyone should know about this book, as well as similarly worthwhile books like The Truth about the Drug Companies, Dirty Medicine, Racketeering In Medicine, The Great Cholesterol Con, How to Protect Your Heart from Your Doctor, Confessions of a Medical Heretic (amusingly written, by a medical doctor, as well as scandalous), The Medical Mafia (also by a medic, similar theme as Confessions and passionately but badly written), Cancer: Why We're Still Dying to Know the Truth, The Cancer Industry, Why We will Never Win the War on AIDS and the many books against vaccination, the biggest scam that is maiming and killing the coming generations.

It's too bad that most buyers of this book already have at least an inkling that "modern medicine" is a con. Everyone needs to know what is going on but most don't even know this information is available - yet it could save their lives and the lives of loved ones and will certainly prevent much unnecessary pain and damage.

This book offers valuable information and thus joins the ranks of similar worthy warning books on my shelves, such as The Truth about the Drug Companies. There's valuable information here, from an excellent investigative journalist.

Everyone should know this information, as well as that contained in similarly worthwhile books like Dirty Medicine, Racketeering In Medicine, The Truth About Drug Companies, The Great Cholesterol Con, How to Protect Your Heart from Your Doctor, Confessions of a Medical Heretic (amusingly written, by a medical doctor, as well as scandalous), The Medical Mafia (also by a medic, similar theme as Confessions and passionately but badly written), Cancer: Why We're Still Dying to Know the Truth, The Cancer Industry, Why We will Never Win the War on AIDS and many books against vaccination, the biggest scam that is maiming and killing the coming generations.

Selling Sickness is a striking and bare-knuckled expose' about how the multibillion dollar Pharmaceutical Drug Cartel (PDC) exercises arbitrary and Fifth Column influence over the FDA, the NIMH and premiere medical and psychiatric journals and organizations, while shaping the perceptions of the lemming masses.

Promoters and agents of the multibillion dollar advertising industry hold the rank of Joseph Goebbels in the PDC, using funding for fifth column advertising, research projects and "education" grants to control journals, public agencies and artificial "grassroots" movements, (i.e. "Astroturf.")

While this phenomena demonstrates that corporate and stockholder interests are not always in the best public interest, it also begs a larger question:

Can the masses be drugged (as opposed to crushed by military force) into surrendering independent liberty to the Brave New World of a Marxist/Von Mises hybrid similar to that of China?

Selling Sickness is about how the multibillion dollar Pharmaceutical Drug Cartel (PDC) exercises arbitrary and Fifth Column influence over the FDA, the NIMH and premiere medical and psychiatric journals and organizations, while shaping the perceptions of the lemming masses.

Promoters and agents of the multibillion dollar advertising industry hold the rank of Joseph Goebbels in the PDC, using funding for fifth column advertising, research projects and "education" grants to control journals, public agencies and artificial "grassroots" movements, (i.e. "Astroturf.")

While this phenomena demonstrates that corporate and stockholder interests are not always in the best public interest, it also begs a larger question:

Can the masses be drugged (as opposed to crushed by military force) into surrendering independent liberty to a Marxist/Von Mises hybrid similar to that of China?

HEALTHY, WELL PEOPLE DO NOT MAKE DOCTORS RICH. THEY DO NOT MAKE DRUG COMPANY "CEO'S" OR "INVESTORS"
RICH EITHER.
GOING TO SEE A DIETITIAN EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR IT "OUT OF POCKET" WOULD BE MONEY WELL SPENT. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOUR DOCTOR "PRESCRIBED" A DIET?? WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME HE EVEN TALKED ABOUT DIET?? WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME HE EXAMINED YOU??

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU GAVE ANY THOUGHT TO WHAT YOU PUT IN YOUR MOUTH?? WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU GOT LIGHT TO MODERATE EXERCISE??
LASTLY, WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU FELT REALLY GOOD?? GET THE BOOK AND READ IT. GET MORE BOOKS LIKE IT AND READ THEM. YOU MIGHT BE A BETTER "DOCTOR" THAN THE ONE YOU ARE SEEING NOW...

A must-read for everyone who is on prescription medications or has a loved one on meds. Especially, if you think the FDA protects consumers.

This is an excellent and well written book. If you want to be informed, I suggest you read it. I won't bother restating what others have said. I also notice that physicians here rating the book don't like it as much. I wonder why?

Code words, "Disease," "Clinically Proven," and "Blind Study." These are the catch words, we hear in the brain washing TV commericals, we are bombarded with each and every time we sit down in front of the "Boob Tube." All this and so much more are here within these pages. Statins, cholesterol lowering drugs, which create more problems than they solve, with the very likihood of liver disfunction, happens to be the best sellers right now, even though diet adjustment, and exercise are less risky, far cheaper, and more effective. Oh and beware the numbers, as to what is high cholesterol or low, have been changed to suit "Big Pharma."

Those who sit on the panel at the FDA, have finanical ties to "Big Pharma," and ignore the damages left behind by taking simple disorders like constipation, declairing constipation a disease. Because the FDA has declaired only a drug, can cure a disease. Next prescribing a drug via your doctor, who is likely getting some type of a kick back of one kind or another, from "Big Pharma." A drug instead of recommending more fibre in the diet, more water, and exercise. Because of the FDA mandate, it is illegal for such a recommendation to be issued.

Let us not forget that members of our dollar chasing Congress, and Senate go on to become advisors, or lobbyists for "Big Pharma," and try to tell us ther is no conflict here. Even though to keep "Big Pharma" afloat billions are spent on Congress, the Senate, and marketing. I wonder if that is why the "Junk" is so expensive? Of course more people die from prescription drugs, than die from illegal street drugs. Yes look it up.

This book should open the eyes of us all if just to make us read, and research more. Because too many of us hear about this disease and that on the boob tube, and then ask their doctor for this new "Magic Bullet."

Some will dismiss this book as "Alarmist" rantings, and that there is really nothing to be concerned about. Some will laugh, others will ask their doctor's many more questions.

Whatever, get the book and try to get pass the soft music, or flashy graphics from Park Avenue, and understand, it is all about money. "Big Pharma" money that is.

This book was a real eye-opener. The authors write very clearly, and it is well referenced. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants an introduction to just how crooked the relationship can be between 'Big pharma' and the medical profession.

Ray Moynihan is a legend, and more importantly he appears to have some integrity and intelligence. While other so-called journalists unquestioningly accept what is spoon-fed to them from big Pharma, Moynihan bothers to look beneath the veneer created by PR and spin-doctoring. The book has been written so that non-medical people can understand it, but is referenced in order that health professionals can check the veracity of his claims - and he really doesn't claim anything he can't back up by referenced literature. I applaud Dr Pelton for reading the book at all, but feel a little sad that he doesn't go a little further and discover for himself that most modern theory of disease is based on little more than wishful thinking, huge profits and massive disinformation campaigns.

This book does an excellent job exposing where some companies have done wrong. I can write the same book about almost any industry in the country. Now how many of them have developed a life-changing drug like Enbrel? As others have pointed out, this book (and most others like it) do a miserable job of providing context. Our life expectancies are lower than other industrialized nations because we are the fatest people on the planet, I can only imagine what it would be like if we didn't take the drugs that keep us alive. Can people exercise and take care of themselves and avoid a lot of these issues? Sure they can-but they don't and then they go to the doctor expecting a miracle cure. Can they not feed their little kids pounds of high frucotse corn syrup and avoid turming them into 20 year old diabetics, sure they can-but they don't. Every doctor I've ever been to or talked to says they tell every patient to exercise and watch their diet first (before ever prescribing anything). When the patient fails to comply then the doctor does what they think is the best thing to keep their patient alive. Pharmas certainly do wrong things, like any other business, and they need to be policed, but they should not be the scapegoat for sensationalist journalists (who are, guess what, selling the news/books) and short-sighted politicians are are unwilling or unable to deal with the larger healthcare issues our nation now faces.

Read this book, but please read others as well (that ought to make Amazon happy!)-try some that don't agree with what the media has programmed you to think about big pharma-if you can find any.

This book does an excellent job exposing where some companies have done wrong. I can write the same book about almost any industry in the country. Now how many of them have developed a life-changing drug like Enbrel? As others have pointed out, this book (and most others like it) do a miserable job of providing context. Our life expectancies are lower than other industrialized nations because we are the fatest people on the planet, I can only imagine what it would be like if we didn't take the drugs that keep us alive. Can people exercise and take care of themselves and avoid a lot of these issues? Sure they can-but they don't and then they go to the doctor expecting a miracle cure. Can they not feed their little kids pounds of high frucotse corn syrup and avoid turming them into 20 year old diabetics, sure they can-but they don't. Every doctor I've ever been to or talked to says they tell every patient to exercise and watch their diet first (before ever prescribing anything). When the patient fails to comply then the doctor does what they think is the best thing to keep their patient alive. Pharmas certainly do wrong things, like any other business, and they need to be policed, but they should not be the scapegoat for sensationalist journalists (who are, guess what, selling the news/books) and short-sighted politicians are are unwilling or unable to deal with the larger healthcare issues our nation now faces.

Read this book, but please read others as well (that ought to make Amazon happy!)-try some that don't agree with what the media has programmed you to think about big pharma-if you can find any.

The book presents ten examples of unethical conduct by pharmaceutical compnies in order to promote their products. The tactics include misrepresenting statistical facts, overstating health risks, influencing medical authorities, creating new medical conditions in order to sell drugs for them and so on.

All the facts in the book are true. But the impression the book creates is skewed. Modern medicine cannot exist without pharmaceutical industry, and the relationship between it and medical professionals is more complex than portrayed in this text. I also believe that most doctors deserve more credit when it comes to choosing treatments for their patients.

But opinions aside, the book actually is getting boring as it progresses, probably because it is clear how each chapter will end soon after the beginning. I also expected less political and more medical information. I also think the authors should have touched on other reasons of proliferation of drug culture in modern society.

Overall I was disappointed.

As a single woman writer with a very modest income, I have struggled and struggled for years to pay ever increasing health insurance premiums. Health costs are going through the ROOF and much of this is explained in "Selling Sickness."

And the coup de grace is Governor Perry's recent mandate that all 11 and 12-year-old girls be vaccinated against cervical cancer. In February 2007, USA Today reported that Perry *bypassed* the state legislature to force this law on the books. Three shots of this nice, new chemical will cost $360 and prevent only 70% of cervical cancers. Yet Perty is comparing this to the Polio vaccine?

"Selling Sickness" pulls back the curtain on the politically-charged (and financially inspired) machinations of the pharmaceutical industry and explains the mass manipulation. It's a very disturbing book, but also well documented, well researched and utterly fascinating.

Read it and weep - for America's health care system.

i found this book to be a real eye opener as to what goes on behind the scenes. Bottom line: it's all about the money...at the expense of our health. I highly reccomend everyone to read this book before venturing down the drug path. For me, drugs are a last resort.

Just a humorous aside to start. I found it amusing that the two lowest ratings in these online reviews came from physicians. Does this speak to the point made in the book that the perception of ties between Pharma and the doctors is all too real?

I enjoyed this book immensely. The ideas presented in this book have been running around in my mind for a while now. I get ill just wathcing these drug commercials and any intelligent person should see that the details presented about these new conditions are skewed towards a particular drug. This should inspire caution on our part.

These days, if you do not have the right disease, you are just behind the times. I get the feeling that we WANT to be sick, or is it just that we as a whole have a proclivity towards a quick fix from the trials and tribulations of everday life?

My one problem with the book is that it seemed overly repetetive in some passages and could have benefitted from better editing. As another reviewer put it: It seemed rushed. But the message is good and the ideas are presented well. It is a well documented book, so further research can be done by the serious individual that may need a bit more information to see that it is not wool that is being pulled over our eyes, but Prozac over our minds.

Mr. P.

After oil production peaks, higher energy prices are likely to sink the world economy into a never-ending depression, so it will be important to stay healthy, because everything, and especially medical costs, are likely to be more expensive in the future. Before you incur high medical costs you can little afford, make sure you're even ill first. A great deal of fat could be cut out of the health care system right now and used instead to help people who are truly ill.

Getting healthy people to buy drugs they don't need, which won't cure what they don't have, and potentially have unpleasant to dire side effects, sounds like such a crazy premise, even Hollywood wouldn't buy it.

Yet that's just what's happened, as Moynihan and Cassels document in their book "Selling Sickness". The 500 billion dollar pharmaceutical industry has plenty of money to spend convincing us that our ordinary travails mask mental illnesses, and common aches and pains need treatment.

Americans represent five percent of the world's population, but we consume fifty percent of prescription drugs.

Millions of healthy people have asked their doctor about that purple pill they saw on television, or been given drugs pushed by the army of 80,000 drug salesmen who've influenced your doctor with free lunches and far more.

Many people now take drugs that may have harmful side effects and won't make much of a difference in improving their health. Hormone replacement therapy turned out to increase the chance of heart attacks for women, one of the blockbuster cholesterol lowering drugs was withdrawn from the market because it was implicated in causing deaths.

The FDA isn't looking out for you either, as shown in the chapter on irritable bowel syndrome. The FDA let the drug Lotronex remain far too long on the market, despite evidence coming in from doctors that it was killing, hospitalizing, and causing complications never seen before by doctors treating this syndrome.

How has the pharmaceutical industry pulled this off?

1) The point where you "need" to take a particular drug is continually lowered (i.e. for cholesterol, high blood pressure, etc), often far lower than necessary. Many of the doctors setting these lower standards have financial ties to the drug companies, so when more drugs are sold to more people, they stand to profit. Every time the good cholesterol level is lowered, millions of new customers are created overnight.

2) New diseases are invented that don't really exist. Menopause, for example, is a natural part of the life cycle. It's doubtful that attention deficit disorder and other "diseases" in the book exist.

3) Pharmaceutical companies exaggerate the good the drug will do for you. Brittle bones are only 13% of the problem in osteoporosis, which tends to affect people the last chapter of their life. Far more important is: don't fall! Be sure you've got good eyeglasses; your rugs won't slip, exercise, and so on.

4) You'll never see ads telling you the one thing you need to know: if you want to lead a healthy life, eat a good diet and exercise. But you will see all sorts of deceptive ads, which this book does a good job of describing. You'll be angry and sometimes shocked when you see the dirty tricks used to promote drugs.

There are people who stand to benefit from these drugs, the book is definitely not saying they're totally useless, and in fact, many of the people who do need these drugs aren't getting them.

But before you decide to take a drug, be sure to do research first to make sure you really need it. If you have one of the following, or know someone who does, you might want to read this book, which discusses depression, high cholesterol, menopause, attention deficit disorder, high blood pressure, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, social anxiety disorder, osteoporosis, irritable bowel syndrome, and female sexual dysfunction. The final chapter is entitled "What can we do?"

[...]

This excellent book have a great amount of information about marketing strategies from the pharmaceutical industry and the contracted PR firms. The aim of this alliance is to change our point of view about "common life problems" and transform it in medical problems if the industry have a medication: in a simple pass the uncomfort is transformed in illnes, and risk in disease. In fact the benefits of the medication is less than the expected and the risk are higher. From this perspective the book is the evidence that information can save lifes, the antidote to those biggers campaigns is the skepticism. More clear definitions of a disease or conditions and more hard data about risk and benefits of the medications are needed. This book explain why.

As a physician, I was very interested in this book. I deal with phamaceutical representatives occasionally as well as patients coming in asking about "diseases" that they learn about on TV. While I agree completely with some of the examples of pharmaceutical excess detailed in this book, a lot of the book relies on alarmist anecdotes rather than hard science. While not written for medical professionals, this book oversimplifies some complex medical issues. For instance,the primary reason to treat elevated blood pressures is to prevent strokes- this isn't even mentioned in this book. And just because elevation of blood pressure is perhaps a normal part of aging rather than a "disease", it does not mean that people might not benefit from treatment. Likewise, in their alarmist discussion of cholesterol medications, they don't bother to note that the incidence of deaths from heart disease in this country has dropped by about 50% in the past 35 years- some of that is attributable to decreased smoking, aspirin and angioplasties but a lot is due to cholesterol lowering medications.

Unfortunately, the treatment of real medical problems such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia and osteoporosis is hardly differentiated from such "fad diseases" such as social anxiety disorder and premenstrual dysphoric disorder. I think the pharmaceutical industry is doing everybody a disservice by promoting new diseases, but I also think this book is doing patients a disservice by unnecessarily frightening them about important medications.

Overall, I am still glad I read the book and would recommend it to others but am very worried what medically unsophisticated readers may draw from it.

Selling Sickness shows us the organizaitonal chart for what patients already know; We don't need all the prescription drugs we are taking. Drug companies are master marketers - second to none and they work the system of physicians and patients to create a money making machine that should make Microsoft and Budweiser sit down and take notes.

The book is a quick read and makes its point powerfully; don't trust the system (unless your 401K is mostly Phizer and Merck...)

I am a family physician who does indeed believe that there is too much medical care in the US. Nevertheless this book cannot see the forest for the trees. There are many issues where there is clearly questionable value provided by the medical industry, but I dont think that they found those. Some of the areas they have chosen, they may be quite wrong on, such as the value of lowering blood pressure. Other areas they did choose to address have not become major issues because physicians and patients are not as easily duped as they may think. I could go on for some, but lets just that the book is one sided and not very good.

A must-read for anyone who ever went to the doctor.

An excellent exposý of 10 or more examples of manufactured or exaggerated illness, from adult attention deficit disorder to osteoporosis. Overblown promotions of drugs and concealment of drug side-effects well explained. Big Pharma's use of public relations firms to create fear of some more or less normal condition is shown. Big Pharma's capture of the FDA and other agencies is shown.

Big Pharma's secret ownership of some patient support groups is shown, as is its control of much Continuing Medical Education. Its lobbying is legendary.

Even if you know about this disgrace in the USA, there are many aspects that may be new to you, so read this book.
Easy to read, good referencing, decent index.

Weak technically, but this might have been a desire not to stress the reader. Still, authors seem unaware that older people with the highest cholesterol and LDL levels live the longest (Schupf N, Costa R, Luchsinger J, et al. (2005). Relationship Between Plasma Lipids and All-Cause Mortality in Nondemented Elderly. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 53:219-226.), or that blood pressure rises naturally with age, and only the top 10% of BP levels can be treated with any benefit.

I recently saw an ad on TV about "Restless Leg Syndrome". What the crap is that? The Pharma companies invented this brand new disease which is just leg cramps after a hike. Creating diseases and drugs for these imaginative diseases - This is the best way to loot American people. Drug companies are good at this.

It's the Great American Way, gone a little bit crazy. There have always been beople who will tell you that by using their product your life would be better. And now television has come about so they can tell millions of people at once. In this case the product being sold is drugs. But what people are buying is peace of mind. It may be that that new car will help you get the girl, or maybe it's Viagra.

The ones I particularly like are those commercials that can't quite describe what the illness is, but taking this drug will fix it. And I also like the bit in all of them where they have to tell about things like side effects. Strangely enough this bit seems to be spoken very fast. My favorite one here is if you get an erection that lasts more than four hours seek medical help. ==While the authors make a good case that the drug companies are treating non-existing illnesses, is it any real difference from telling us that brand name pain killers are better than those bottles labeled aspirin, acetaminophen or ibuprofen.

I think the book is quite right, the drug companies want to sell us more drugs. And they will find people willing to pay for them. I enjoyed reading the book, it details how the drug companies have created a world where the US with 5% of the population buys 50% of the drugs sold. And our longevity rates are not at the top of the lists.

Everyone should read this book and be informed about the FDA and all the drug companies who are urging the use of medications and what they do to get accepted to the general public. It is truly an eye-opener and is shocking!

There is a revolution in health care and it begins with the patient. The more a patient understands about their health, in all likelihood, the healthier they will be. Health care costs are skyrocketing but most of the expense comes from hospitalization, nursing home care and physician visits. Only 10% of our nation's health care costs are due to the use of pharmaceuticals. Healthy lifestyle choices and preventative medicine are the only ways to improve your quality of life and keep a lid on costs. Many conditions have no symptoms and if left untreated can lead to even bigger issues that require more invasive therapy. Patients who treat their high blood pressure with medication prior to having a stroke or kidney failure have an improved quality of life. Patients with symptoms of erectile dysfunction may learn that they have underlying cardiovascular disease that can be corrected without surgery. High cholesterol may lead to blocked arteries that could require an expensive by-pass surgery unless statin drugs are used. Depression certainly lowers the quality of life of an individual and may impact all aspects of their personal relationships and professional life. This book seems to take none of this seriously. While becoming wealthy themselves, the authors poke fun at very real issues that if not corrected will lead to more serious problems down the road. The science behind discovery of drug is very complex and education of the patient is a high priority. The authors of this book should have spent their time alerting their readers as to what symptoms should be recognized and presented to a physician. By giving these conditions names, the patient can communicate and understand their disease while receiving the treatment they need. If you buy this book, I would ask that you do not complain about the high cost of healthcare or your poor health.

"Selling Sickness should be read by everyone on medication or considering going on medication. Read it, rage, then draw up a list of questions for your GP."

Lucy Clark, Sunday Telegraph, June 5, 2005

This is a well documented book that clearly shows how Pharmaceutical Companies have more of THEIR interests at heart, than our health. The tie-ins of the people at the top of the drug companies show well how they cash in with new prescriptions that are astronomically expensive, and their prices rise, along with the balance of their bank accounts.
This is an excellent book that can only help you to make wiser choices for your own health and well being.