Lisa,
Your response mirrors many of my friends that are Doctors or Dentists.
I am very aware that as a culture, the majority of Americans will almost always go for the "magic pill".
And they play right into the hands of big pharma....If you taped all the arthritis ads, anxiety ads, all the ads with disclaimers that take almost half of the time up going over how these drugs "could" leave you dead or comatose, or severely ill, then suggest you check with your doctor about why this might be the best thing ever for you...it is MIND BOGGLING that they go on to ask their doctor if they can take these "miracle drugs"....And I also know, if a doctor refuses to prescribe nonsense that these "astute" consumers are demanding from the ads...that they will go somewhere else.
I am not blaming doctors for this....but the advertising culture of the last 30 years has helped to shape these consumers into what they are.
If I was to be a kid again, and I had to be a doctor when I grew up, I would choose to be an ER Doc, because they get to TRY and fix the real issue. Not to say that they alone get to do this, but I think they get the most opportunities to do what they were hoping to do when they first got into med school. I have several ER docs as friends, and I like their attitudes about most medical issues.
Still, their is a "culture" in American Medicine, to treat the symptom. I think it would be hard to show that big pharma has not had a big hand in creating the tests and the screenings, that are suggestive of what drugs are ideal to treat the symptoms tested for.