Selling sickness: the pharmaceutical industry and disease mongering * Commentary: Medicalisation of risk factors

Abstract

Ordinary processes or ailments as medical problems: baldnessThe medicalisation of baldness shows clearly the transformation of the ordinary processes of life into medical phenomena. Around the time that Merck's hair growth drug finasteride (Propecia) was first approved in Australia, leading newspapers featured new information about the emotional trauma associated with hair loss. The global public relations firm Edelman orchestrated some of the coverage but largely left its fingerprints off the resulting stories. An article on page 4 in the Australian newspaper featured a new “study” suggesting that a third of all men experienced some degree of hair loss, along with comments by concerned experts and news that an International Hair Study Institute had been established.7 It suggested that losing hair could lead to panic and other emotional difficulties, and even have an impact on job prospects and mental wellbeing. The article did not reveal that the study and the institute were both funded by Merck and that the experts quoted had been supplied by Edelman, despite this information being available in Edelman's publicity materials in May 1998.Merck has widely promoted hair loss as a medical problem, including advertising on buses(Credit: CHRIS GROENHOUT)Although Merck is prevented from advertising finasteride direct to consumers in Australia, it has continued to promote hair loss as a medical problem, with waves of advertisements urging balding men to “See Your Doctor.” The company argues that it does not describe baldness as an illness and that men have a legitimate right to be made aware of scientifically proved options to stop hair loss (statement from Merck spokesperson, 7 March 2002).Footnotes Competing interest None declared.