Even as Americans we find these amusing. They tell you to "ask you doctor about x." Does anyone do that ever?
They're also unintentionally hilarious now that they can't read the side effects at super speed, so 50% of the commercial is watching someone play with their dog while you learn that this allergy medicine is going to give you diarrhea and suicidal thoughts and maybe a heart attack.
They must work somehow because they're clearly dumping so much money in them.
I'll bite. I actually figured out I had narcolepsy through a pharmaceutical company's big campaign to push a couple newer drugs they have the patents for. "Are you more than tired?". Well, yes. I'm tired all the time and a couple times a week have bouts where I'm staring at a concrete floor thinking I could just lay down and go to sleep. But I don't have narcolepsy. I'm not that tired. I don't pass out randomly. I can still work long hours at a physical job. I just occasionally have to muster all my willpower not to lay down and sleep in the middle of the store. And I haven't been able to watch an entire movie without falling asleep in the first hour in a very long time.
Took the chintzy little quiz and I figured I might as well ask my doctor. A couple sleep studies and an MSLT test and what do you know?
Narcolepsy is not about passing out randomly, most doze off very quickly when doing simple or repetitive things. If you also have cataplexy there is hardly any question. Read more about it, join a local group the symptoms are very divers.
I take a medication that's routinely advertised. When they advertised an updated formula for it, I did ask my doctor if we should consider it. Turns out, it's not covered by the insurance, so, not today. But if it were, we'd certainly be considering it. Doctors are pretty notorious for the "if it's not broke, don't fix it", and leaving things as they lay, rather than bombarding patients with "the latest options". So, it can help patients interested in the condition to talk about these sorts of things.
Also, when my doctor proposed the medication, it helped I already had some indirect familiarity with it.
I sympathize with the caricature of medical advertising, and even advertising in general. We all "hate" advertising, but we all rely on it. Everyone pauses at an ad that catches their eye in some way.
