An analysis of television commercials
for prescription drugs found that few mentioned risk factors
or non-drug treatments for the conditions they target, scientists
reported.
The researchers recorded commercials
that aired in prime time on ABC, CBS, NBC or Fox from June
30 to July 27, 2004. They ended up with 38 unique ads representing
seven of the 10 top-selling prescription drugs of 2004,
they write in the Annals of Family Medicine.
"All of the ads … contained elements
that we considered problematic," says lead author Dominick
Frosch, assistant professor of medicine at the University
of California-Los Angeles. "I think consumers should be
more skeptical of the pharmaceutical ads than some surveys
find they are."
Among flaws identified by Frosch and
his collaborators:
•Only a quarter of the ads mentioned
causes or risk factors for the condition treated by the
drug.
•None of the commercials mentioned
lifestyle changes as an alternative to medication (for example,
diet and exercise to lower cholesterol), although about
a fifth mentioned such changes as an adjunct to medication.
•Only a quarter of the commercials
mentioned how common or uncommon the treated disease is.
•Most of the commercials were
unrealistic in portraying medication's role in achieving
health. The ads showed people who regained complete control
of their lives after taking the advertised drug.
"Certainly, they leave a lot to be
desired in terms of providing useful educational information
to consumers," says Frosch, a health psychologist.
In an accompanying editorial, former
Food and Drug Administration commissioner David Kessler
and University of California-San Francisco colleague Douglas
Levy write that direct-to-consumer ads "do not effectively
or consistently convey important information about product
risks and benefits."
"There is nothing wrong with pharmaceutical
companies communicating directly with consumers, but they
should adhere to the standards and ethics of medicine, not
the standards and ethics of selling soap or some other consumer
product that presents minimal risks," Kessler and Levy write.
Ken Johnson, senior vice president
of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America,
the prescription drug industry's main trade organization,
says Frosch's study doesn't reflect changes brought about
by his group's "Guiding Principles" for direct-to-consumer
advertising. The voluntary guidelines came out about a year
after the commercials in Frosch's study aired.
"The study does not reflect any of
the positive changes in DTC advertisements over the past
12 months," Johnson said in a statement.
In their editorial, Kessler and Levy
write that although such industry efforts "may be a step
in the right direction, physicians, consumers and policymakers
must take further action so that the facts about medicine
are not lost in the advertising fog."
