Sleeping pills like Ambien, Lunesta, Sonata, and Rozerem
have been a gold mine for Pharma because everyone sleeps--or watches TV when
they can't. Ads convey unrealistic expectations for fall-to-sleep time and the
pills do not necessarily even work. In FDA documents, one sleeping pill,
Rozerem, was no better than a placebo. Still, its sales shot up by 60 percent
thanks to TV advertising, reported the New York Times.
Ads for Ambien in India, where it is sold under the name Zolfresh, actually claim the pill makes people live longer, according to published reports.
To churn the sleeping pill market, Pharma has rolled out subcategories of insomnia like chronic, acute, transient, initial, delayed-onset, middle-of-the-night, early-morning and non-restful sleep. The stimulants Pharma markets for "wakefulness" problems also sell sleep meds--and vice verse. Who can sleep after being on stimulants all day? And who feels wide awake in the morning after sleeping meds to treat the wakefulness meds? END
Read more about unscrupulous drug advertising in Martha
Rosenberg's, Born with a Junk Food Deficiency, now available as a hardcover or
ebook.
Twitter @marthrosenberg
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
2
2
