“Deceptive and Fraudulent Health Claims”
We are living in a pill-popping and dangerously over-medicated society. The current opioid crisis has led to thousands of unnecessary deaths, prompting a major class action lawsuit. False and fraudulent advertising fills television commercial and newspaper ads. In 2008, researchers at the Oregon Health and Science University reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, that nearly a third of antidepressant drug studies, which showed that the drugs do not work, are never published in the medical literature. Published studies which present unfavorable results have been recast (re-written) “to make medicines appear more effective than they really are.” Researchers conclude that, “Selective publication can lead doctors to make inappropriate prescribing decisions that may not be in the best interest of their patients and, thus, the public health.” Dietary supplements present an even worse case of false advertising, which amounts to blatant, sleazy dishonesty.
