Review article takes rare look at impact of advertising psychiatric drugs
Advertising prescription drugs to consumers is forbidden in most of the world, but since U.S. guidelines were relaxed in 1997, such ads have become nearly ubiquitous in American media. In a newly published review, Brown University researchers examined what has been learned since then about the effect of all that advertising on psychiatric conditions. They found that the data are very limited, but what does exist suggests that ads succeed in driving prescribing with potentially mixed effects on patient care.
"On a basic level, the goal of our review was to begin addressing an important and rarely examined public health question," said lead author Sara Becker, a research assistant professor at the Brown University School of Public Health and the Warren Alpert Medical School. "Is this enormous multibillion dollar industry of direct-to-consumer advertising of psychiatric medication affecting public health in a positive or negative way? There are many possible ways to answer this question - we began by taking a close look at patient and physician behavior in response to these ads."
Click on this link for more information.
