Researchers from University of Newcastle in Australia have accused drug companies of “disease mongering” — their term for inventing or exaggerating diseases in order to make profit.

These scientists are accusing companies of making up diseases such as social anxiety disorder, which could simply be unfortunate, yet completely natural, shyness.

Tom O’Shea, a pharmacist at Eggleston’s Pharmacy, 403 E. State St., said this advertising tactic is possible, but at the same time, hard to prove without speaking to physicians.

“People are now going to their doctor and saying ‘I saw this, and I need this medication,'” O’Shea said. O’Shea said he feels some of these patients’ concerns are a response to advertisements, since the Food and Drug Administration’s change in advertising laws allows advertising of prescription drugs directly to consumers.

Dr. Thomas Kirts, a psychiatrist at the DeKalb Clinic, said he doesn’t believe it is happening everywhere.

“I can’t speak for other areas of medicine, but it’s certainly not happening in psychiatry,” Kirts said.

But Kirts disagreed with scientists who suggest that social anxiety disorder is a fictitious disease.

“There’s a gray area in between social anxiety disorder and shyness, but the disorder is more than just shyness,” he said.

It’s also possible for certain disorders to be under-diagnosed, Kirts said. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is probably over-diagnosed in social upper classes but under-diagnosed in lower-class areas.

In response to such allegations, Ken Johnson, vice president of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, issued the following statement:

“To say we are in the business of scaring healthy people to seek treatment is simply unfair and untrue. Every health challenge should be taken seriously. Questioning the legitimacy of health conditions and the drugs developed to fight them does not lesson the pain of the symptoms or eradicate the tragedy of the disease and it does not cure one single patient.”

Johnson maintains pharmaceutical companies conduct business ethically.

On campus, at least one student is skeptical about the validity of some of the diseases that are presented.

“These diseases just seem to come out of the blue. They don’t actually go into details or facts on the commercials, though,” said freshman biology major Dominique Danzy.

Another student finds the claims irrational and says she trusts doctors to prescribe properly.

“Most of the drugs on commercials are prescription, so you have to go through a doctor to get them anyway,” said Mariela Velazquez, a freshman physical therapy major. “It wouldn’t be ethical for a doctor to prescribe something you aren’t suppose to take.”