Decades After Ottawa Charter on Determinants of Health, a Question of Combating Commercial Influences - Health Policy Watch

Doctors' prescribing habits are heavily influenced by payments, gifts, and free meals from pharmaceutical companies, leading to more expensive, less appropriate and more drugs being prescribed, a new Cochrane review finds. This can seriously harm both individual patients and health systems. Pharmaceutical companies use a variety of strategies to market and promote their drugs. This can include one-on-one visits by sales reps to doctors' offices and hospitals, gifts and payments including for example paid meals, travel costs to conferences, entertainment, consulting fees, honoraria for participation in advisory boards, and advertising.

IntroductionThe overlooked relationship between mental health and bladder functionThe neurobiology of bladder dysfunctionHow mental health conditions amplify bladder dysfunctionWhy stress can turn normal bladder signals into distressing symptomsNew approaches for managing bladder and psychological symptomsThe future of bladder careReferencesFurther reading From chronic stress and altered sensory processing to anxiety and depression, emerging evidence is revealing an intricate relationship between the mind and the lower urinary tract - and challenging how bladder disorders are understood and managed.