Once again about fictional diseases
Are they sick or something?
The main profit to pharmacists is brought by 200 fictional ailmentsIrina Vlasova, "Version"
New diagnostic and treatment methods, new technologies, medicines and biologically active substances are regularly appearing in medicine. Most often, of course, they relate to already known diseases, but sometimes in order to promote new products to the market, it is necessary to simultaneously "discover" previously unknown diseases. Or declare a disease that was not previously considered as such. Potential patients are at the same time potential buyers, and as a result, along with real diseases, more and more fictional ones appear. The main thing is to find a suitable symptom, and then you can inspire people that they have some kind of pathology, which is not something that a particular person has, but actually does not exist in nature.
What are "fictional diseases"? A few years ago, the British Medical Journal counted more than 200 of them. Among them are both understandable wrinkles and baldness, cellulite and the formation of sulfur in the ears, and exotic ones like "allergies to the XXI century". "This is either a disease that does not exist at all, or its intentional expanded interpretation and accentuation of danger to the population, which are actively used for selfish purposes," explained Professor Pavel Vorobyov, Deputy chairman of the Formulary Committee of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, to Our Version. As a result, people spend a lot of money on the treatment of actively promoted imaginary ailments, but there is not enough money for real diseases.
A striking example of a fictional disease is cellulite. Judging by the name, we are really talking about a disease ("-it" – inflammation). True, real cellulite is a rather rare fibrous inflammation of the subcutaneous tissue. And what women usually mean by cellulite is just a cosmetic feature of women's skin and subcutaneous fat. It is associated with stagnant phenomena in the circulation of lymph, blood, as well as with uneven deposition of fat. Foreign doctors generally attribute cellulite to the secondary sexual characteristics of a woman.
With cellulite, you do not need to do liposuction or take medications, just eat less or accept the fact that a person has such a metabolism – it is difficult and almost hopeless to fight it. Professor Vorobyov told the story of a woman who died in the fight against the manifestations of excess weight. "She was a very fat woman, during treatment she lost weight dramatically, her kidneys dropped, kidney failure developed – and she died. Fast weight loss is much more dangerous than obesity! And there are a lot of stories about how sepsis (blood poisoning) develops after liposuction. In principle, this is quite a likely complication of any operation, but is the cosmetic effect worth going to such complications, sometimes ending in death?" the expert asks.
The specialist also considers osteochondrosis to be fictional diseases. The diagnosis of "osteochondrosis" exists in foreign literature, but it designates rare diseases of bones and joints, mainly in children. In Russia, "chondrosis" is called any back pain. "Skeletal images of people over 50 years old will show that almost everyone has osteochondrosis, and this is a normal age-related change, but whether a person has radiculitis with it is another question. With sciatica, the disease is associated with a change in the skeleton, but osteochondrosis itself is an age norm, says Professor Vorobyov. – Now there is a similar problem with osteoporosis, which almost everyone over 60 has. In most cases, it does not cause physical suffering, it is the same age-related changes as wrinkles."
Osteoporosis is detected in 99 out of 100 elderly people, but it does not need to be treated. Although, according to the analytical agency DSM Group, Russians only in the first half of 2011 spent 11.8 million rubles on the purchase of drugs for osteoporosis, having eaten 122 million packs of pills. At the same time, the increase in wasted money amounted to 10.3% compared to the corresponding period of 2010. True, spending on drugs and anti-cellulite creams among Russians has been declining recently: in 2010, they threw 22% less into the wind than in 2009, but the reason for this was most likely simply a reduction in income during the crisis.
Actively promoted antibiotic treatment does more harm than good to health – and precisely because of their improper use associated with imaginary diseases. Antibiotics are the number one drugs for pneumonia, sepsis or pyelonephritis, but when infections are invented, antibiotics do not bring any benefit, but they negatively affect the gastrointestinal tract, causing complications in the kidneys and liver. In principle, there are many pathogens of infections, it is not so difficult to identify them, and as a result, almost any disease can be associated with any pathogen. Almost everyone has chlamydia, E. coli, measles virus in one form or another. But seemingly simple analogies require rigorous checks and evidence: such and such a pathogen causes such and such a clinical picture. According to Professor Vorobyov, chlamydia is diagnosed and treated at every step, and at the same time, cases when doctors collude with laboratory assistants and "find" everything they need in the tests are known to many. A woman who came to the reception is told that chlamydia was found in her smear. A woman cannot check this, and together with her partner (or several), she is offered treatment with expensive antibiotics, immunostimulants, biological additives, sometimes even persuaded to do a "blood purification". And chlamydia is no longer found! But whether it was at all, history is silent.
The hysteria with swine flu, inflated by the WHO, is even more indicative. Again, data from DSM Group analysts. "In 2009, in which the panic before swine flu was artificially inflated," says Sergey Shulyak, Director General of the agency, –the drug Teraflu was sold for 2.1 billion rubles (13 million packages). In 2010, without lobbying, sales naturally decreased, if we count in packages, by 14%. Even greater was the decline in sales of the drug Arbidol, known to Russians. If in 2009 the turnover of the drug amounted to 5.6 billion rubles for 37 million packages, then in 2010 sales decreased by 19% in rubles, reaching 4.5 billion rubles, and Russians accepted 28 million packages of the drug."
Often new diseases are invented for wealthy young people, which means relatively healthy people. In this case, diagnostics comes to the fore. For example, you are given test strips with which you find the "resonance of cells" or something else that sounds as incomprehensible as possible.
"The idea of the benefits of early diagnosis is not always true," says Professor Pavel Vorobyov. – What can be the early diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction, acute pneumonia, meningitis? Until they have taken place, there can be no early diagnosis."
It is no coincidence that the medical joke is so popular that there are no healthy people, but there are under-examined ones. Often, according to researchers at the Universities of Toronto and Harvard, there is a situation called a "cascade of appointments" when doctors consider the side effect of taking medication as a manifestation of a new disease.
The USA is leading in inventing diseases, they are the main developers of PR campaigns for medicines that have become good business projects. In the States, mental illness diagnoses are most often made: a child runs during recess, which means that he has a syndrome of increased activity. Thanks to the efforts of domestic doctors and near-medical figures, "violation of the function of the eustachian tube" (an opening between the oral cavity and the middle ear, maintaining environmental pressure), "urolithiasis in the stage before the formation of stones", "slagging of the body" and "intestinal blockage" were added to the world list of imaginary diseases.
Perhaps the last trick is "female orgasmic disorder". The true frequency of the disorder is unknown (according to some authors, it can be observed in 10-15% of women who live a regular sexual life).
"Manufacturers of medicines really want to treat this pain," says Professor Vasily Vlasov, president of the Society of Evidence–Based Medicine Specialists. – Viagra and analogues are used, the growth in popularity of drugs is surprising. No one has canceled the side effects from the use, but the main thing is that healthy people feel sick."
By the way, in 2010 alone, Russians spent 2,729 million rubles on Viagra – 18.7% more than in 2009.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru27.09.2011