Generation Rx: How Prescription Drugs Are Altering American Lives, Minds, and Bodies [Paperback]

Greg Critser (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 5, 2007

Greg Critser's brilliantly incisive Generation Rx shows how shockingly little we know about the prescription drugs we take and the hazards they may pose to our health. Americans are prescribed more drugs today than ever before, and the pharmaceutical industry has gained tremendous financial power and political clout. Drawing on exclusive access to the strategists, scientists, and current and former heads of GlaxoSmithKline, Eli Lilly, Merck, and other drug giants, Critser chronicles the transformation of big pharma from onetime lumbering medical conglomerate to media-savvy consumer enterprise. He also reveals the direct and indirect consequences for our health, among them increased incidence of damage to major organs, unprecedented medication use by the very young and very old, and the emergence of polypharmacy, in which various drugs taken together can unleash unanticipated, and often deadly, effects.

Generation Rx urges all of us to think about the price we pay, as a society and with our own bodies, for our chronic use of prescription drugs.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

According to Critser, almost half of all Americans use a prescription drug daily; one in six take three or more. What are the possible consequences of the staggering recent growth in the use of such drugs? Journalist Critser (Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World) lays out the cautionary facts in exquisite detail. The saga of big pharma gives new meaning to the term "slippery slope": none of it could have happened, he says, absent Reaganite deregulatory fervor, which led to the taking of several bold risks, most of which were perceived in the 1980s, even by drug makers, to be "downright dangerous"—including direct-to-consumer promotion (DTC) and the advent of off-label marketing—drug manufacturers encouraging doctors to prescribe medications for maladies for which the FDA has not approved their use. Some of this territory about our growing dependence on prescription drugs and the impact of DTC advertising was covered last year by Marcia Angell and others, yet it's a story worth heeding again in the wake of the recent furor over Vioxx. Critser's account is solid, thorough and told with vigor.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Critics were enthralled—and disturbed—by Critser’s muckraking portrait of the pharmaceutical industry and the overmedicated public it purports to serve. The book is sure to make people think twice the next time they reach into their medicine cabinet. Critser presents compelling evidence that drugs are not adequately tested before they hit the market and that drug companies seem to be inventing ailments that their pills can cure. But the book is not just a big-business exposé. Critser also explores the societal pressures that lead Americans of all ages to turn to pills to fulfill the burdensome expectations they place on themselves. And he uses gentle humor to avoid coming off as excessively alarmist.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 308 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (January 5, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618773568
• ISBN-13: 978-0618773565
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #902,857 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Greg Critser is an award-winning writer about medicine, science, food and health. His work has appeared in periodicals ranging from the New York Times to the Times of London, and from Harper's to the New Yorker. He is the author of the best seller Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World (Houghton Mifflin 2003), and the award-winning Generation Rx: How Prescription Drugs are Altering American Minds, Lives and Bodies (Houghton 2005). His new book, Eternity Soup: Inside the Quest to End Aging, will be published by Random House in January 2010. He has lectured widely at universities and medical schools, and his blog can be found at Scientificblogging.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting observations, engaging arguments, October 17, 2005

By 

Sreeram Ramakrishnan (Lynnfield, MA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Generation Rx: How Prescription Drugs Are Altering American Lives, Minds, and Bodies (Hardcover)

Clearly, this is a book worthy of the acclaim the author recieved for his previous work. In this critical account(well-researched, but starting with a very biased opinion to begin with) Crister takes a look at how "Big Pharma" has evolved and changed everyone's lives. The early parts of the book focusses on the evolution of the trade group associated with the drug companies, their motivation and objectives, the personalities involved in its growth, and the inter-play with the politicians and regulatory agencies. Much of that discussion is based on the patent laws and their impacts on the drug companies and the patients.

Essentially, the author states a bold premise at the outset of the book - the prescription medication habits of patients is centered around "polymedication" (using multiple medicines to treat the same condition) and overmedication and that it is the fault of the drug companies for creating that scenario. While the observations in the book are perhaps accurate and convincing, it certainly does provide a skewed picture of the operations of the drug companies (no one can dispute the fact that they are for-profit companies trying to increase shareholder value).

Whether you agree with the author's premise or not, the book systematically explains his rationale for his premise, interspersed with some interesting anecdotes regarding advertising, direct-to-consumer marketing, politics, and personalities.

A good (albiet, slightly biased) look at the operations of Big Pharma. At the very least, one can gather excellent information on the politics and marketing mechanisms of Big Pharma and their interactions with the regulatory agencies. A must read for anyone who is a patient (or "consumer" of drug companies!) or an investor in Big Pharma.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars All I can say is Wow, November 19, 2005

By 

Stephanie Manley (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Generation Rx: How Prescription Drugs Are Altering American Lives, Minds, and Bodies (Hardcover)

Like many other American's I have taken perscription medicines. Often I have wondered why I am getting the script for the latest drug I have seen on TV when I know other, cheaper drugs have worked in the past. This book really delves into the way drug companies market themselves to the physicians, and then how and why they started marketing to consumers.
I don't know how many of you have sat in doctor's offices waiting for your appointments and have been frustrated when drug company representatives come in to visit the doctor while you wait. Perhaps this has happened to you. I have been amazed as to why going in for something simple you can walk out with several perscriptions. Greg Critser suggests that it is through marketing and giving incentives to physicians this happens. As physicians write more and more perscriptions they are gifted by the drug companies. Once they realized how great that marketing technique worked, we started to see ads directed at consumers.
In their marketing, they have often suggested that some drugs work on symptions that the drug did not intend to treat initially; for example, Paxil for shyness, Prozac for PMS. Doctors can legally perscribe a drug for any reason they want to. Meaning marketing in this way, the drug isn't tested properly, and is being given to patients to test out the drug. In recent years we have had problems is Phen-Phen, and Viaox.
This book is heavily slanted against the drug companies. The book does cast them as a villian, no doubt. What I liked was that it made you think. Perhaps with some knowledge of how the drug business works, a consumer can go in and ask if the drug was specifically developed for what the intent of treatment is. You might even want to learn to ask about alternative and less expensive treatment. It was good, but very biased read.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Articulate and Insightful, September 25, 2006

By 

D. Fineman "[e-mail]" (L. A., CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Generation Rx: How Prescription Drugs Are Altering American Lives, Minds, and Bodies (Hardcover)

Here, as in his FAT LAND, Critser performs a public service in the best possible format. Major issues like the growth of the drug culture are usually presented with more technical detail than the non-specialist can stand or with lurid alarmism. Here Critser condenses huge amounts of data and first hand research in a prose that is both lucid and interesting. In a country where every other ad is for a drug, each citizen should read this exciting volume.