Jarvik karma.

May the phenomenon of metaphysical blow-back that has whisked Dr. (non-practicing-non-rowing) Jarvik out of our lives likewise propel Eli Lilly and Co. and their heart-rending and brilliantly scored Cymbalta TV commercials into deserved oblivion. If traffic on this Website is any measure, people are still captured and intrigued -- haunted, even -- by the quasi-classical music of these antidepressant pitches. All the direct-to-user TV advertising for prescription remedies has so muddied the practice of medicine that formerly important, potent, risk-managed drugs are now sold like Preparation H. All those mumbled voice-over warnings about side effects, including really serious, life threatening ones -- even four hour erections (you don't want to know how they fix that) -- go right past us and we run to our docs asking for them. We take responsibility for our own care, now don't we. So we have only ourselves to blame. And now that studies are saying antidpressants, maybe, work no better than sugar pills against depression, hell, we might as well be swigging Lydia E. Pinkham's. It's at least got an alcoholic side effect to make up for the taste. And has all this made us trust the FDA more? I saw a commercial that used "...and it's FDA approved..." like it was a recommendation. I'd think twice about that. Yes, bring on the karma. This is the way America takes care of problems of misrepresentation and just plain BS. Very Republican. Expose the hype and let the marketplace decide.