Big Pharma, Low Libido And The Rise Of Disease Mongering

MUNICH — A woman doesn’t want to sleep with her husband anymore. She still loves him, and she once enjoyed having sex with him. But now, she's never in the mood. What sounds like a common problem among couples who have been together for a long time is now being treated as a pathology.

These days, not wanting to have sex can be cured. There's a pill for that, and it has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). But this certainly is no proof that a woman not having any more sexual desire towards her partner has anything to do with a pathological disturbance.

Critics say a woman’s lagging libido is the latest in a number of “made-up diseases.” There is a major operation behind a typical life difficulty being officially declared an illness by the pharmaceutical industry, eager to open up new markets.

Shyness as illness

Gerd Glaeske is a health economics professor at the University of Bremen and one of the harshest critics of Germany’s pharmaceutical industry. He cites several examples, including the claim that six million German men are suffering from "erectile dysfunction," needing to be treated with Viagra.

He also notes how being shy becomes a "social phobia;" the cure: tranquilizers. And supposedly 800,000 children distracted as kids can be are victims of attention deficit disorder, and are prescribed the drug Ritalin as a treatment.

Pharmaceutical industries have always tried to expand their market, but they are just half of the problem, says Glaeske. The other half are the patients themselves.

People prefer to be a patient, than to actually deal with life’s...