Wired Science

A Few Creative-types Raise Awareness About Disease-Mongering

Stumble across the Web site for Havidol and you're bound to believe it’s what it says it is: an advertisement for a new drug treating Dysphoric Social Attention Consumption Deficit Anxiety Disorder, an illness characterized by a sense of lingering unhappiness. But Havidol is not what it appears to be—it is actually an artistic project designed to raise awareness about the pharmaceutical industry's questionable drug-selling tactics.

A number of people today are challenging the pharmaceutical industry for what they refer to as "disease-mongering," or the expansion of disease boundaries. It is, after all, in a company's best interest to sell its drugs to as many people as possible, and with the advent of direct-to-consumer television advertising in the U.S., it's been easier than ever for companies to find new niches for their drugs and to convince people that they suffer from treatable disorders.

"If you believe that despite the opportunities, achievements and acquisitions you already have, something is still missing, then Havidol may be right for you," the drug's Web site explains—and who hasn't felt that way before?

The more people an advertisement can target, the better off its sponsoring company will be, and that's why Big Pharma is selling medicines that aren't necessarily lifesaving, but "lifestyle-saving," says artist Justine Cooper, a New York-based Australian artist and the creator of Havidol. With her Web site, Cooper brings attention to the pharmaceutical industry's tactics in which "everyday life is pathologized, and then can be medicalized." she says.

Cooper is not the only artist who is raising awareness about this issue. In a critically acclaimed play that most recently ran at the Marsh Theater in San Francisco, Los Angeles-based playwright Jennifer Berry—who both wrote the play and performed in it—addresses what she refers to as the "Great Antidepression," the rise of the antidepressant drug industry and how it has affected her generation.

Direct-to-consumer advertising sparked our country's dependence on antidepressants, says Berry. "We're advertising disorders," she says. "That did not happen when I was a kid. You didn't turn on the television and see an advertisement for a disorder—that was something between a doctor and a patient."

And this advertising, Berry explains, started at about the same time that Generation X-ers began entering the workforce. So when people—especially women—had problems adjusting to adulthood or their careers, they turned to drugs rather than other solutions.

"Instead of looking at the social problems that affect women and children," says Berry, "we just want to medicate them."

Upset by this trend, Berry wrote her play, "Big Pharma: The Rise of the Anti-Depressant Drug Industry and the Loss of a Generation," to bring attention to it. In addition to touring college campuses, the play has enjoyed three runs, in San Francisco, Boulder and Los Angeles, and Berry has had requests to bring it elsewhere, too.

"The response has been amazing," she says. "I've gotten tons of letters and cards from people who have shared very sad stories with me. I've also gotten some wonderful letters from people who are trying to work with alternative medicines and alternative things to help people through rough times."

Neither Cooper nor Berry questions the reality of depression or other disorders, but rather the idea that drugs are always the best solution. "I’m not saying that drugs don’t save lives or really improve people’s lives," but you definitely have to weigh the benefits against the costs, Cooper says.

She adds that the Havidol project has enjoyed positive responses as well, but that it has angered some people, too—perhaps because it is so believable. The newswire Reuters, for instance, ran a story in which it reported that some people have tried to request Havidol from their doctors. "Yeah, people have believed it," says Cooper. But "it’s meant to be ambiguous, so that it’s not so ridiculous."

Indeed, by coming across Havidol or ending up in the audience of "Big Pharma," people who might otherwise have remained unaware of the concept of disease-mongering will learn a thing or two, and that is precisely the point. By bringing the issue into the realm of art, Cooper and Berry hope to spread awareness far and wide.

"It’s nice to let things go out in the world and affect people," Cooper says.