Healthy Skepticism Library item: 4214

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Prather JE.
Decoding advertising: the role of communication studies in explaining the popularity of minor tranquillisers
1991112-135

Abstract:

This chapter offers some answers to questions such as: what was the symptomatology that resulted in physicians prescribing so many minor tranquillizers; did anxiety and tension become the most common international health problems; why did so many women, but not men, become long-term users of minor tranquillizers? The chapter investigates these issues by discussing four topics: 1) an overview of pharmaceutical advertising as related to minor tranquillizers; 2) a review of content analysis studies of pharmaceutical advertising; 3) a summary of semiotic approaches for comprehending the meaning of the ads; and 4) a summary of the effects of advertising on physicians’ prescribing patterns.

Keywords:
*nonsystematic review/psychotropic drugs/images in ads/women/quality of information/quality of prescribing/ideology/semiotics/sexism/regulation of promotion/EVALUATION OF PROMOTION: JOURNAL ADVERTISEMENTS/IMAGES IN PROMOTION: WOMEN/INFLUENCE OF PROMOTION: PRESCRIBING, DRUG USE/PROMOTION IN SPECIFIC THERAPEUTIC AREAS: PSYCHIATRIC DISEASES/REGULATION, CODES, GUIDELINES: INDUSTRY SELF-REGULATION