Direct To Consumer Pharmacuetical Advertising

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The Misleading Truth About Pharmaceutical Advertisements

Is a patient at liberty to diagnose his or her own affliction? If so, are they also qualified enough to know the right medication and take into consideration the drugs adverse effects? With the recent onset of direct to consumer advertising for prescription drugs, this is becoming the case. In 1994, expenditures on direct to consumer advertisements were about twenty-five-million a year. By 1998 that figure changed to about 225 million (Sasich 2). Turn on the TV, there they are. Open your favorite magazine, there they are again. Listen to the radio, congratulations, you’ve found another ad for the latest prescription drug. Rush down to your local physician and life will be perfect, right? Do these advertisements have a place in healthcare, where they could be potentially dangerous? Although educating the public about treatment options is not a bad thing, these advertisements are misleading the public into unnecessary treatment.

We first have to look at what an advertisement is intended to do: persuade. Advertisements for prescription medication are not only persuading the general public to get the treatment, they are telling them that they have the affliction. This is increasingly damaging in cases where the affliction is somewhat subjective, such as depression. I’m sure that every normal person has at least once in they’re life felt sad or depressed. This does not mean that there is a problem that would require medication. But advertisements are telling them that they do. If a patient feels this way, take this, everything will be perfect and the patient will unquestionably feel happy. Take this pill and problems will disappear faster than a hamburger at Weight Watchers. This is not the case. Advertisements are not selling the remedy; they are selling the affliction, and promising that your life’s problems can be whisked away in one convenient little pill. Since the onset of advertisements for medication, the industry has skyrocketed. Pharmaceutical companies are making more profit now than ever before (Sasich 5). Does this mean that more people are getting sick? Obviously not- it means the industry is prescribing the medication not the doctors. It means that people are being fooled into their own sickness. The pharmaceutical industry is a s...

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...ls about the condition’s precursors, or make any attempt whatsoever to clear up misconceptions about the condition. It is also extremely rare that prescription drug ads provide any information about the drug’s success rate, treatment duration, alternative treatments, and behavioral changes that could enhance the health of affected patients. If public schooling gave the same “education” as these advertisements, we would surely be a nation of idiots.

Direct to consumer prescription drug advertising is clearly presenting information in a biased and misleading manner. The public is becoming increasingly aware of treatments and the role a physician is playing in the process of diagnoses is clearly being undermined. Information about prescription drugs needs to be presented in a clear, straightforward way so the public can be educated about adverse and desired effects of a drug equally.

Works Cited
Celexa citalopram HBr. Advertisement. Architectural Digest May 2001: 54.
Effexor xr. Advertisement. Architectural Digest May 2001:129.
Sasich, Larry D. “Direct to consumer advertising” Public Citizen June
2001. <http://www.citizen.org/hrg/PUBLICATIONS/1400.htm>

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