The Medicine Men

December 12, 2024 by Doctor Vernon Coleman

My first serious medical book was called `The Medicine Men’ which was published in 1975. In 2025 the book will celebrate its 50th anniversary. `The Medicine Men’ described my disquiet about the way the pharmaceutical industry had taken over medicine and had acquired control of the medical profession. The book was widely and well-reviewed (including a 20 minute film on the BBC 1 news) and for many years it was included in countless bibliographies and regarded as the beginning of a movement to hold the drug industry and the medical profession to account. Today, of course, the book is widely suppressed and it was out of print until recently. Here are some selected reviews:

Reviews

‘Vernon Coleman writes as a general practitioner who has become disquieted by the all-pervasive influence of the pharmaceutical industry in modern medicine…He describes, with a wealth of illustrations, the phenomena of modern iatrogenesis; but he is also concerned about the wider harm which can result from doctors’ and patients’ preoccupation with medication instead of with the prevention of disease. He demonstrates, all the more effectively because he writes in a sober, matter-of-fact style, the immense influence exercised by the drug industry on doctors’ prescribing habits…He writes as a family doctor who is keenly aware of the social dimensions of medical practice. He ends his book with practical suggestions as to how medical care – in the developing countries as well as in the West – can best be freed from this unhealthy pharmaceutical predominance.’ – G.M.Carstairs, The Times Literary Supplement (1975)

‘What he says of the present is true: and it is the great merit of the book that he says it from the viewpoint of a practising general practitioner, who sees from the inside what is going on, and is appalled by the consequences to the profession, and to the public.’ – Brian Inglis, Punch (1975)

‘Dr Coleman writes with more sense than bias. Required reading for any Minister of Health’ – Daily Express

‘I hope this book becomes a bestseller among doctors, nurses and the wider public…’ – Nursing Times

‘Dr Coleman’s well-coordinated book could not be more timely.’ – Yorkshire Post

‘Few would disagree with Dr Coleman that more should be done about prevention.’ – The Lancet

‘This short but very readable book has a message that is timely. Vernon Coleman’s point is that much of the medical research into which money and expertise are poured is useless. At the same time, remedial conditions of mind and body which cause the most distress are largely neglected. This is true.’ – Daily Telegraph

‘If you believe Dr Vernon Coleman, the main beneficiaries of the hundred million pounds worth of research done in this country each year are certainly not the patients. The research benefits mostly the medical place seekers, who use their academic investigations as rungs on the promotional ladder, or drug companies with an eye for the latest market opening…The future may hold bionic superman but all a nation’s physic cannot significantly change the basic mortality statistics except sometimes, to make them worse.’ – The Guardian

‘Dr Coleman’s well-coordinated book could not be more timely.’ – Yorkshire Post

‘The Medicine Men is well worth reading’ – Times Educational Supplement

‘Dr Vernon Coleman…is not a mine of information – he is a fountain. It pours out of him, mixed with opinions which have an attractive common sense ring about them.’ – Coventry Evening Telegraph

NOTE
You can buy a copy of the new paperback edition of `The Medicine Men’ from the bookshop on www.vernoncoleman.com

Copyright Vernon Coleman December 2024