Advertising in Pharmacueticals
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. T
It makes you think, are you as playful as that baby? You must have depression, as nothing else could possibly explain your sudden loss of child-like playfulness. But this ad targets anyone who has grown into a mature, normal adult and stamps it as depression. When the specialists examined the ads in ten leading U. The study goes even further to say, "Only half were judged to convey important information on adverse effects in the main promotional text, and approximately forty percent were judged about efficacy and fairly described the benefits and risks in the main promotional text" (Sasich 7). However, very few ads report details about the condition's precursors, or make any attempt whatsoever to clear up misconceptions about the condition. In order to sell a product, an advertiser or pharmaceutical company must first create demand; this is the first rule of marketing. In addition to this, forty-seven percent of the forty-nine ads did not highlight potential problems (when information was relevant) with specialty populations, such as the elderly. "Direct to consumer advertising" Public Citizen June 2001. Take this pill and problems will disappear faster than a hamburger at Weight Watchers. If public schooling gave the same "education" as these advertisements, we would surely be a nation of idiots. his is increasingly damaging in cases where the affliction is somewhat subjective, such as depression. The patient today now has more knowledge about the prescription drugs available to them than ever before. Virtually all advertisements give the name of the condition treated by the promoted drug, and a majority provide information about the symptoms of the condition. These types of ploys may be an effective tool for marketing, but they have no right to be used for a potentially harmful product.
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