Not only do these drugs appeal to people with depression, they can also appeal to people who think they may have depression but in reality can be just going through a rough patch. If a person who may think they are depressed is watching one of these commercials they may become even more convinced that something is wrong with them. Ultimately convincing them that they are actually depressed. In the article, “Serotonin and Depression: A Disconnect between the Advertisements and the Scientific Literature” by Jeffrey Lacasse and Jonathan Leo, they state that, “These advertisements present a seductive concept, and the fact that patients are now presenting with a self-described “chemical imbalance” shows that the DTCA is having its intended effect” What Jeffrey and Jonathan are saying is that these advertisements are ultimately allowing people to think they have something chemically wrong with them which then leads them to demand a prescription for an antidepressant.
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketing of pharmaceuticals has grown increasingly in the past decade. The American public views prescription drug advertising for a wide range of medical conditions, including high cholesterol, depression, allergies, and erectile dysfunction. The Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates the content of these advertisements. Critics also have taken the position that the advertisements garner unearned trust from the public, are misleading, and promote unnecessary use of prescription drugs for common problems associated with aging. Proponents counter that DTC ads help eliminate stigmas associated with certain medical conditions, give patients an active role in their health care management, and encourages the doctor/patient relationship. There have been calls for bans on DTC pharmaceutical advertising, but the practice is protected under a business’s right to free speech. Regulation changes, particularly requiring the FDA to pre-approve marketing campaigns before they are released to the public, may be one way to appease opponents, while protecting the rights of pharmaceutical manufacturers to advertise to the average American consumer.
DTC advertisements aim to persuade that their possibly less effective drugs work better than other drugs rather than to inform consumers of correct information about drugs. The reason that pharmaceutical companies abuse the power of DTC advertising is because the pharmaceutical industry does not have a strong ethical code for advertising; their sales are so obsessed with profits. To solve this problem, policy makers should prohibit indiscreet DTC advertisements on air and fund more informative services about new drugs so that patients could make clever
Just how serious is depression? Should it be as innocent as a cartoon? Many Americans battle with depression day to day. The ad is Abilify is a well-known drug commercial partially because of the animated talking pill and the serious and fatal side effects associated with this drug. This ad is ironic because it uses animation to water-down the life threatening side effects, which are revealed. Depression used to be a taboo subject it was a “ hush-hush” topic that no one talked about because it is seemly embarrassing. In fact mental disorders in general are is a topic that like to “tip toe” over and the ad Abilify sheds light to this controversial topic. Otsuka America Pharmaceutical commercial ad “Abilify”. This ad functions an oxymoron,
Most people want to succeed but today nobody wants to put in the hard work hence Adderall sounds like the perfect solution except no one stops to think of the consequences or even bother to do some research on the drug they are placing in their body. Advertisements are used to manipulate the reader into thinking they need Adderall, or as if they have ADHD. This manipulation works because not many people challenge advertisers instead the consumer takes it for what it is. The consumer silences themselves by not challenging and researching the drug that is being ingested. If the claim being made by the advertisement fits their problem and it has a fix many will fall for the ruse. If a product does more good than bad and is supported by scientific
Depression has become an epidemic in the United States and elsewhere for many years. It was first classified in 1895 by Emil Kraepelin and its been continuing to get worse. To be specific, depression has been known around the world for 122 years but there have always been different forms of depression. When people first heard about depression, they did not know what it was just your emotions running wild or even insanity but truly it is a psychological disease that perhaps you were born with. In this paper I will be talking about the history, facts and knowledge, the treatments and medications, and finally ask the question, "Will depression ever be cured?”
Established author, Ethan Watters, provokes further understanding of culture’s effects on personal traits in his article The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan. The article revolves mostly around Dr. Laurence Kirmayer, the director of the Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry at McGill, and his interesting conference in Kyoto, Japan. The meeting focused mainly on the discussion of depression and anxiety in Japan and how Japan’s culture puts a negative light on feelings of depression. Watters, paraphrasing Kirmayer, explains his belief that culture is constantly changing due to its vast malleability and will continue to shape external and internal beliefs. Although many argue that they’re personality is not defined by their culture,
Every time someone mentions mental illness, many things come to their mind. One of the many mental illnesses known worldwide and one of the most common is mental depression; although it is common not many people know much about it, besides the superficial information. Depression is one of the oldest mental illnesses, dating back to ancient Greece (Fava, M., & Kendler, K.S.) Depression is more than just being upset; it is a major illness everyone should know more about. It has many names such as Depression, Major Depressive Disorder, Clinical Depression, Chronic Depression, etc., that sound similar; because of the different names people assume there are different. There are different types of depression, but they all fall under the same criteria.
An interesting two-part article on “Historical Understandings of Depression” covers how depression has been accepted by society, from its roots as “melancholia” in Mesopotamian texts of the second millennium B.C., to the way that depression is currently interpreted in the society of today. Initially, it was widely believed that mental illnesses, including the “melancholia” we know today as depression, were believed to be inflicted by spiritual evil, such as demons, witches and devils. Treatments consisted of exorcisms and torturous methods such as drowning, beatings, restraint and starvations, as it was believed that these methods of treatment would ward off the evil spirits that were responsible for melancholia. Alternatively, Greek physician
The marketing of psychotropic medications is a science unto itself that relies on push versus pull marketing (Becker, 2015). The push aspect comes from sales representatives going to prescribing doctors to market the drug while the pulls comes DTC advertisements urging consumers to ask their doctor about the medication (Becker, 2015). While there is evidence that listing the potential side effects will lowers the persuasiveness of an advertisement (Kavadas, Prevel Katsanis, & LeBel, 2007) this doesn’t seem to be the case since every dollar spent in advertisement has a return of over four dollars for the company (Becker, 2015). The Seroquel XR advertisement that was run in People Magazine was more than half warnings and possible side effects of the medication. It is hard to judge the effectiveness of this advertisement due to not having either major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder, but to have most of the ad proclaim the risks of the medication would create some concern about taking it. However, the tag line “Say ‘I’m OK’ and mean it!” is eye catching and can resonate with those who have mental illness
In Japan, drug makers published advertisements in newspapers to “alter the environment in which anti-depressant drugs are or may be used…and promote the idea of depression as a common ailment” (Watters 524). As depression has been believed to be incurable, drug makers argued that this disease was equivalent to a cold of the soul or kokoro no kaze. They also published articles in magazines and included statistics showing how many Japanese suffered from depression. The articles asserted that depression has been ubiquitous just like colds. Sometimes, a medical company may extremely underestimate the effects of a disease that the population would think it does not require medication. This approach, in turn, leads to questioning the legitimacy of their actions and the real motives behind their advertisements. Companies must be aware of what and how they communicate to people, because by frequently exposing the public to a certain idea or concept, it becomes unconsciously ingrained in the public subconscious. The public perception of depression in Japan has led to severe consequences, including an increasing suicide rates, “lost man-hours and decreased productivity” (Watters 526). As suicide rates increased, drug makers embraced a difference approach, modified their advertisements,
As Descartes argued, the mind and the body are the base of our existence, and many different cultures view different illnesses positively or negatively. Certain cultures, like the Hmong, believe that epilepsy is a good spiritual thing, but others, such as Western culture, believe that it is medically bad because it could cause death. Many illnesses can be viewed both negatively and positively, some more than others. However, one such illness that is mostly viewed negatively is depression. It is viewed negatively in a symptomatic sense – the symptoms are useless – and in a diagnostic sense – those diagnosed with depression are not actually depressed and the illness itself does not exist; it is simply an excuse to be lazy. There are many different approaches to depression and most of them consider that this illness is negative; however, depression is actually an evolutionary tactic subconsciously employed by humans that can have very positive effects.
One factor that has dominated over recent years is the biological approach, suggesting that it is a person’s genes that lead to depressed symptoms. One theory that has contributed to this is the monoamine hypothesis. This suggests there are three main monoamine neurotransmitters including dopamine, serotonin and norephrenine which cause depression. Specifically, low levels of serotonin. Serotonin helps regulate mood and balances areas of the brain associated with thinking and emotions. Serotonin pathways connect to different brain regions and are located in the brainstem area “the Raphe nuclei”. They affect areas in the brain including the neocortex and the limbic system (e...
Affecting over 15 million Americans and 350 million people worldwide, depression is the leading cause of disability. It also happens to be the number one cause of suicide, making a person 5 times more likely to do so, adding up to a rate of 35,000 suicides annually. There are many factors that contribute to the onset of depression, such as age, gender, genetics, lifestyle or life events, adverse reactions to medication, and so on. Depression is usually accompanied by other forms of mental or emotional distress, with anxiety disorders and addictive behavior in particular, but also includes borderline personality disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and even eating disorders.
Depression’s denotative meaning is: the state of being depressed. When an individual is depressed they experience strong feelings of sadness, lack of motivation, and maybe even losing the will to continue life. People experiencing depression feel extremely burdened and wish the pain would go away. Most clinical definitions say that depression is temporary. I believe if an individual slips into a slope long enough, it may become a life style and forever change them as a person. Rather a person is temporally depressed or makes depression their life, these torturous moments will forever change the way they view life.
eat lunch or just to have a snack. People do not even have time for