Lifestyle drugs: issues for debate.
Year: 2001
Type: article
Abstract: he past few years have witnessed the release of a number of highly publicized “lifestyle” drugs, such as sildenafil for male erectile dysfunction and orlistat for obesity. Other products have had their indications extended to include situations that usually come under the rubric “lifestyle”; for example, finasteride may now be prescribed for male pattern baldness. The appearance of these new products and the new uses for established drugs have raised a series of issues for physicians, for the health care system in terms of priorities for drug expenditures and for society in general. Many of the so-called lifestyle drugs are proving highly popular. For instance, within the first 3 months after orlistat was launched in Canada, 78 200 prescriptions for the drug had been written. 1 As these drugs become more widely used, the scope of the debate and its importance will also broaden: What exactly are lifestyle drugs? What are the issues associated with prescribing them? Do they distract attention from other forms of therapy? Are conducting research into lifestyle drugs and including them in drug payment plans the most appropriate ways to be using health care resources? The first challenge lies in defining lifestyle drugs. Drug companies and patient groups often object to this term on the grounds that it trivializes the conditions that the drugs are designed to treat, although that is not usually the intent. To try to clarify the meaning of the term, a recent report 2
Source: Europe PMC (PubMed Central)
Author: J Lexchin
Institution: University of Toronto
Language: English
Subfield: Economics and Econometrics
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2153668488