This doctor's visit is brought to you by … an investigation of twenty-first century disease mongering

Abstract

Disease mongering occurs when advertising strategies merge with modern drug companies to establish a drug market by widening or exaggerating the diagnosis of illness. This investigation reviews assertions where physicians, media, and pharmaceutical giants establish new diseases through disease mongering; a broad definition of illness. Consumers gain exposure through advertising that is largely defined as direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) and primarily evolves from the pharmaceutical industry and through the national media. Important questions to this topic are three-fold: (1) Do drug manufacturers, physicians, and promoters establish a market to convince people that they are ‘sick’ or otherwise in need of a remedy, thus leading them to seek treatment with particular drugs? (2) In the spirit of a profitable bottom line, is there a persuasive strategy by these agents to make suffering manmade? (3) Do patients seek these remedies of their own accord or are they enticed by engineered illness and remedies? Advancing this topic, a new theoretical health communication model, Wheel of PharmaPseudocal Influence is introduced to advance this topic, illustrate, and expand understanding of the complex relational impact of agents who assert their influence in healthcare. DTCA serves as a prototype to examine these communication phenomena.

Keywords:

• Direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA)
• Disease mongering
• Medicalization
• Medical marketing
• Pharmaceutical
• Drug advertising
• Defining illness

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lisa Waite

Lisa Waite holds a M.A. in Organizational Communication (University of Akron) with scholarly and corporate coaching expertise in health communication, corporate communication, interpersonal communication, applied communication, and communication education. She is a full time Associate Professor of Communication Studies at the Stark Campus of Kent State University, where she has been recognized with the Outstanding Teaching Award, and is a six-time merit recipient of the Teaching Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. She is distinguished as an Outstanding Professional in America, Who's Who in North American Education, Madison's Who's Who Among Professional Women, and Who's Who among Executives and Professionals. In addition to scholarly publications, Lisa is the author of several corporate training programs: Communicate with Confidence, Improving Customer Satisfaction in the 21st Century Workplace, High Impact Professional Speaking, and Mission Possible: The Art of Empowerment. She is acknowledged for her dynamic teaching and training facilitation and consistent rating of “excellent.” Her passion is inspiring growth in others at every level. Clients include local and international organizations in health care, business and industry such as IBM, Anheuser Bush, Shearer's Foods, Longaberger, the JM Smucker Company, The Timken Company, Diebold, FedEx, The Heinz Corporation, Marathon Ashland Petroleum, the Aultman Health Foundation, Mercy Medical Center, and others. Her training extends to private coaching in physician-patient communication, performance phobias, professional development and organizational effectiveness. She holds memberships in the American Association of University Professors, American Society of Training and Development, National Association of Professional Women, National Communication Association, and the National Speaker's Association.