Say what?
We live in an acronym-loving world that is getting worse all the time. Everybody (well, maybe not everybody) recognizes SONAR and RADAR and LASER and GPS and FDR and JFK and UNICEF and BBC and GE and GM and IBM and ATT and hundreds of other shortcut ways of communicating via speech and writing. We recognize them instantly. In this age of Donald Trump we have come to know FBI and CIA and MI5 and even MI6, fun concepts all. An especially fun one is DJIA (Dow Jones Industrial Average). A not-so-fun category includes SJW (social justice warriors) and STD (sexually-transmitted disease).
Here are a few medical acronyms that I have heard (and heard and heard) on television lately:
PE
DVT
TBI
MBC
Three of these are in commercials from pharmaceutical companies and one is from the Dr. Phil show.
Give up?
They mean pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis, traumatic brain injury, and metastatic breast cancer (note use of the Oxford comma).
And don't forget the ever-popular ED (erectile dysfunction).
I think there is more going on here than just a clever way to speed up communication. I think we human beings want to avoid unpleasant topics, want to pretend they don't exist, can't bring ourselves to say the actual words out loud because they scare us more than we like to admit.
Changing subjects, sort of, what is it with the pharmaceutical giants marketing directly to us yokels out here in television land? Why do they tell us to ask our doctor about their products? Why don't they go directly to the medical community themselves? Since when do the patients tell the physicians what medicines they need to prescribe?
Is a puzzlement.
If you ask me, this post is rather Andy Rooney-esque.
I miss him.
Before signing off, I would like to send birthday greetings to my good friend Mr. Rinaldo R. “Len” Gallucci of Bainbridge, Georgia, who will be 96 tomorrow.
I have been complaining about the "cutesy" acronyms for medical conditions and medications for a long time. There is nothing adorable about IBS (irritable bowel syndrome).
ReplyDeleteYour post title says it all.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised that the acronyms mentioned were not generally used in the US. They are all common in the UK. Of course our whole system of drug distribution is different and, so far as I'm aware, drug companies do not advertise on mainstream television.
ReplyDeleteGraham, I didn't mean to imply that the acronymns mentioned were not generally used in the US, because they are. My point is that they are all too prevalent and a way of avoiding unpleasant subjects.
DeleteAn RHB might also be a medical condition - Rheumatoid Hemorrhoidal Babesiosis. NOI (No offence intended)
ReplyDeleteYorkshire P., I had to look up babesiosis, and then I was sorry that I did. Live and learn.
DeletePharmaceutical companies in Australia are not allowed to advertise prescription meds to the general public, instead they seduce doctors with free trips and lunches. I was just reading the figures yesterday, there are about 70 free events put on by drug companies EVERY DAY in this country.
ReplyDeleteI know lots of acronyms related to birth and when I think about it, you're right, most of them are for the less pleasant things
kylie, I wish they were not allowed to advertise here, but that's capitalism for you. Thank you for not sharing the acronymns related to birth.
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