The Latest Mania: Selling Bipolar Disorder

"One of the most famous direct-to-consumer television adverts for a drug begins with a vibrant woman dancing late into the night. A background voice says, “Your doctor probably never sees you when you feel like this.” The advert cuts to a shrunken and glum figure, and the voiceover now says, “This is who your doctor usually sees.” Cutting again to the woman, in active shopping mode, clutching bags with the latest brand names, we hear: “That's why so many people with bipolar disorder are being treated for depression and not getting any better—because depression is only half the story.” We see the woman again depressed, looking at bills that have arrived in the post before switching to seeing her again energetically painting her apartment. “That fast- talking, energetic, quick tempered, overdoing it, up-all-night you,” says the voiceover, “probably never shows up at the doctor's office, right?”

No drugs are mentioned. But viewers are encouraged to log onto www.bipolarawareness.com, which takes them to a Web site called “Bipolar Help Center,” sponsored by Lilly Pharmaceuticals, the makers of olanzapine (Zyprexa). The Web site contains a “mood disorder questionnaire” (http://www.bipolarhelpcenter.com/resources/mdq.jsp). In the television advert, we see our heroine logging onto www.bipolarawareness.com and finding this questionnaire. The voice encourages the viewer to follow her example: “Take the test you can take to your doctor, it can change your life….getting a correct diagnosis is the first step in treating bipolar disorder. Help your doctor to help you.”

This advert markets bipolar disorder. The advert can be read as a genuine attempt to alert people who may be suffering from one of the most debilitating and serious psychiatric diseases—manic-depressive illness. Alternatively, the advert can be read as an example of what has been termed disease mongering [1]. Whichever it is, it will reach beyond those suffering from a mood disorder to others who will as a consequence be more likely to see aspects of their personal experiences in a new way that will lead to medical consultations and in a way that will shape the outcome of those consultations. Adverts that encourage “mood watching” risk transforming variations from an emotional even keel into potential indicators of latent or actual bipolar disorder. This advert appeared in 2002 shortly after Lilly's antipsychotic olanzapine had received a license for treating mania. The company was also running trials aimed at establishing olanzapine as a “mood stabilizer,” one of which was recently published."

Read more

http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlse ... ed.0030185

That is scary. Yes, I'm sure it could be seen as alerting people to a problem that they do need help with, but it's also going to end up recruiting people - all the people who don't have bipolar but who do have periods of being down, and periods of being elated. These people are then going to end up with a diagnosis and a load of pills. And if this is aimed (as it sounds like it might be) at getting yet more people on the Zyprexa train, the pills they end up taking are highly likely to do them serious damage.

the above article is just one in a series on disease mongering published by plos.

you can read more here
http://collections.plos.org/diseasemongering-2006.php

And when they can't sell it they coerce it . http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/coerce

co·erce  1.to compel by force, intimidation, or authority, especially without regard for individual desire or volition: They coerced him into mediction compliance for alleged bipolar.
2.to bring about through the use of force or other forms of compulsion; exact: to coerce obedience. 3.to dominate or control, especially by exploiting fear, anxiety, etc.: The locked hospital is based on successfully coercing the individual.
On the selling check out this anti-ablify youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VzMZX4nBz8
great link http://collections.plos.org/diseasemongering-2006.php on disease mongering thanks

The Latest Mania: Selling Bipolar Drugs to Kids

What are the symptoms of bipolar disorder in children and adolescents?
One of the biggest challenges has been to differentiate children with mania from those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Since both groups of children present with irritability, hyperactivity and distractibility, these symptoms are not useful for the diagnosis of mania. By contrast, elated mood, grandiose behaviors, flight of ideas, decreased need for sleep and hypersexuality occur primarily in mania and are uncommon in ADHD. Below is a brief description of how to recognize these mania-specific symptoms in children.

Elation. Elated children may laugh hysterically and act infectiously happy without any reason at home, school or in church. If someone who did not know them saw their behaviors, they would think the child was on his/her way to Disneyland. Parents and teachers often see this as "Jim Carey-like" behaviors.


Grandiose behaviors. Grandiose behaviors are when children act as if the rules do not pertain to them. For example, they believe they are so smart that they can tell the teacher what to teach, tell other students what to learn and call the school principal to complain about teachers they do not like. Some children are convinced that they can do superhuman deeds (e.g., that they are Superman) without getting seriously hurt, e.g. "flying" out of windows.


Flight of ideas. Children display flight of ideas when they jump from topic to topic in rapid succession during a normal conversation—not just when a special event has happened.


Decreased need for sleep. Children who sleep only 4-6 hours and are not tired the next day display a decreased need for sleep. These children may stay up playing on the computer and ordering things or rearranging furniture.

What treatments—medications and psychosocial—have been shown to be effective and what are their side effects?
Medications mentioned
in this section

Abilify*
Aripipazole
Depakote*
Lithium
Olanzapine
Quetiapine
Resperidol*
Risperidone
Seroquel*
Topamax*
Topiramate
Valproic acid
Zyprexa* http://www.zyprexa-victims.com

I copy/pasted (catted) this from the NAMI website, NAMI "FACTS" as they say.

Check out some more NAMI "FACTS".
http://www.nami.org/Content/NavigationM ... 1Q2009.pdf