I just suffered through a stupid Zetia ad featuring this lady:

who goes on to say something to the effect of, “My doctor tested my cholesterol, and it was a little higher than we wanted, so he prescribed Zetia!” And now my life is perfect! (Okay, the last line is my cynicism talking.)

Now, I guess I don’t know all her risk factors, but for an otherwise healthy woman, with a cholesterol level “a little higher” than “we wanted,” I’m pretty sure her doctor should have tried 12 weeks of diet and exercise changes first. Or maybe the guidelines have changed, and the Zetia advertisers are more up to date and know more than me. It’s happened before, I’m sure.

This is exactly the reason every other country has banned direct to consumer snake-oiling advertising (besides New Zealand)–it doesn’t present information fairly or in accordance with national guidelines, doesn’t show patients that your doctor actually has to do some quick thinking and calculating to determine if drugs are the right answer for you, and that drugs aren’t always the right answer for you to begin with. (Drugs have SIDE EFFECTS and can do BAD THINGS to people.)

Let’s either jump on the Evidence-Based Medicine bus–and make our advertisers and patients do so, too–or else it’s going to just be another thing we have to explain to our patients and educate them about. Or, I guess, the other option is to just prescribe drugs, admit patients, and do procedures when we feel like it or think it might be a good idea.

On that note, I think I’ll go ahead and get my appendix out, while I’ve got a few free weeks before I’m back in clinics.

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