HEART AND MIND: MEDICATION – DISCUSSION ABOUT INSIDIOUS EFFECTS
On one occasion, James C. Thomson had a Ion discussion with a medical contemporary about the insidious effects of certain medicines, and a the end of it the doctor said: 'I agree in principle with what you say, but I could never tell a patient of mine merely to change his diet and his habit that would only lose me a patient. He would simply go round the corner to someone who would give him a bottle. Every other doctor ' giving these drugs and injections — why should not I?' Today, we find the profession in exactly the same predicament about powerful new drugs, whose terrible 'side effects' are well known. The doctor who tries to warn his patient off them finds himself regarded merely as obstructive. The pharmaceutical industry has learned that the patient has more power to demand than the doctor has to refuse, and aims its propaganda accordingly. The perverted drive to self-destruction cannot easily be countered by straightforward argument or objective reasoning, but it can be readily - intensified by clever manipulation of our infantile fears, repressions and fixations. To refuse to do the' done thing' is to set oneself apart and to invite ridicule and ostracism.
*11\253\8*
Cardio & Blood | 
