Disease mongering is a term used to describe a perceived attempt by pharmaceutical companies to promote public awareness of (frequently harmless) conditions or diseases with the aim of increasing sales of medication.Moynihan R, Heath I, Henry D. Selling sickness: the pharmaceutical industry and disease mongering. BMJ 2002;324:886-91. PMID 11950740. Examples include male-type baldness and certain social phobias.

Proponents of this practice argue that the pharmaceutical company are only providing the public with information about its options and that actual prescription is a matter to be discussed between patient and doctor. Opponents, however, claim that this approach leads to the unnecessary prescription of drugs, that it is only about the profit of the drug companies, and that it may actually harm instead of help patients.

A 2006 Newcastle, New South Wales conference, reported in PLoS Medicine, explored the phenomenon furtherMoynihan R, Henry D (eds). A Collection of Articles onDisease Mongering. PLoS medicine, 2006. Fulltext. Journalist Moynihan, an important voice in the debate on the phenomenon, also satirised it in a BMJ "news" item that appeared in its April Fool's Day edition 2006, titled "scientists find new disease: motivational deficiency disorder"Moynihan R. Scientists find new disease: motivational deficiency disorder. BMJ 2006;332:745. .

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