healthy4u: direct to consumer advertising

BLOGSCAN - Television Advertising Revenue and the Anechoic Effect

We have often discussed the <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/anechoic%20effect">anechoic effect</a>, how cases involving or discussions of the topics we address on <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/">Health Care Renewal</a>, the concentration and abuse of power in health care, fail to produce any responses, or echoes.  Two recent blog posts discussed one way in whicht the anechoic effect might be generated. A <a href="http://currentmedicine.tv/2012/specialties/psychiatry/youre-telling-me-this-now-why-the-news-is-suddenly-critical-of-statins-and-antidepressants">post</a> by Dr Steven Greer on CurrentMedicine.TV, <a href="http://alison-bass.com/blog/2012/02/why-60-minutes-suddenly-discovered-the-placebo-effect-in-treating-depression">enlarged upon</a> by Alison Bass on the Alison Bass blog, discussed a segment on 60 Minutes yesterday that dealt with the evidence that anti-depressant drugs may not be efficacious for mild to moderate depression.  Since this evidence is about four years old, the question is why it has only made it to the main-stream media now?  Both Dr Greer and Ms Bass think it may be because the patents on most of the newer, mainly selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) type anti-depressants have run out.  Therefore, their manufacturers may no longer be interested in using the clout they derive from paying millions for television advertising to keep programs critical of these drugs off the air.  The implication is that large health care organizations may often use threats to withdraw advertising to forestall criticisms of their products or their agendas in the media, hence increasing the anechoic effect. ADDENDUM (27 February, 2012) See also <a href="http://1boringoldman.com/index.php/2012/02/24/the-neurotic-covenants">comments</a> on the 1BoringOldMan blog.

BLOGSCAN - Television Advertising Revenue and the Anechoic Effect

We have often discussed the anechoic effect , how cases involving or discussions of the topics we address on Health Care Renewal , the conce...

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Vested Interests in Direct-to-Consumer Drug Advertising

As a physician, my blood pressure goes up every time I see the ad about the little purple pill, or the ad involving the guy throwing the football through the old tire (but which is not about throwing, or footballs, or tires), etc., etc., etc. I am convinced that such advertisements provide almost no education to patients. But they probably persuade quite a few to pressure their physicians for drugs that they may not really need, or that may not be the best choices for them. Promoting little purple pills shoves aside the complex balancing of benefits, harms, and costs that should underly choice of therapeutic agents. For how many patients with dyspepsia or GERD will that little purple pill really work better than a generic H2-blocker or proton pump inhibitor? What has made the current news about the Cox-2 inhibitors so troubling is that the drugs were advertised heavily as generally useful for arthritis, and all sorts of aches and pains. Thus, many patients for whom the drugs provided no particular advantage were exposed to their risks of adverse effects. Will the lessons learned from this episode lead to decreased, and/or more informative and realistic direct-to-consumer drug advertising? <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/21/business/media/21adco.html?pagewanted=all">The NY Times today reported </a>the extent of vested interests in keeping such direct-to-consumer advertising going. Merck's spending on advertising Vioxx was $78 million a year. Pfizer was planning to spend more than $87.6 million on advertising Celebrex this year until it canceled the campaign. $3.8 million is now spent yearly on all direct-to-consumer drug advertising. This is not a trivial business for advertising agencies. Furthermore, $110 million, about one-third of the advertising revenue of the big three network evening news programs, comes from direct-to-consumer drug advertising. It remains to be seen whether such vested interests will resist down-sizing direct to consumer advertising, or at least making it more realistic and less like "marketing for Cheerios."

Vested Interests in Direct-to-Consumer Drug Advertising

As a physician, my blood pressure goes up every time I see the ad about the little purple pill, or the ad involving the guy throwing the foo...

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