Therapeutic Embrace Chapter Summary

It is not uncommon for individuals, particularly within the United States to be prescribed antidepressants, prescription sleep medications, pain killers, and a slew of other overly prescribed medications at one point of their lives. In the course of over a half century period pharmaceutical companies have shifted gears toward the research and production of prescription drugs tailored for chronic conditions. In the essay review, “Understanding the “Therapeutic Embrace” between Big Pharma and Modern Medicine”, author Michael Oldani outlines this phenomena. The subject of his book review is a work by Jeremy A. Greene, author of Prescribing by Numbers: Drugs and the Definition of Disease. Oldani’s review begins by introducing the widespread issue

Oldani introduces the following three drugs: Diurill, Orinase, and Mevaco, each medication being one that Greene evaluated to demonstrate the historical relevancy that has impacted patient care and medical practice. Oldani reviews each of the medications in context of their development, their use, and the marketing mechanisms that created the widespread use and popularity of the drugs. The review includes quoted passages by Greene. The inclusion of quoted passages is favorable in a multitude of ways, on one hand using direct passages provides information directly from the book, but it dually enables a reader of the review to obtain a glimpse of the author’s writing

Oldani labeled the presentation of each drug under a bold identifiable headers such as, “Orinase: Finding the Hidden Patient and “Mevacor: Chasing Numbers” (Oldani, 2009). Under each header, he references the corresponding chapters within Prescribing by Numbers: Drugs and the Definition of Disease, and further groups the chapters in accord with the relevant argument Greene’s work presented. In this regard, the author of the review does account for the usability of the reader, i.e. the audience, but one major pitfall of this review is the selective audience to which the author defines. Oldani addresses his audience by stating, “The book should become essential reading for students (both lay and professional) concerned with public health, pharmaceutical studies, and medical history” (Oldani, 2009). The author selectively identifies who should read the book, individuals such as “lay” students and professional students is one group he particularly outlines the book useful for, yet the language to which he writes the review is not entirely reflective of Oldani’s audience. Oxford dictionary defines a lay person as, “A person without professional or specialized knowledge in a particular subject” (Oxford Dictionaries). The language used in both the book and the book review is complex, requiring a reader who is somewhat affluent in the subject, not