DTC drug commercials don’t give the full story…duh

January 30, 2007

An analysis of television commercials forprescription drugs found that few mentioned risk factors or non-drugtreatments for the conditions they target, scientists reported Monday. The researchers recorded commercials that airedin 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 10top-selling prescription drugs of 2004, they write in the Annals of Family Medicine. “All of the ads … contained elements that weconsidered problematic,” says lead author Dominick Frosch, assistantprofessor of medicine at the University of California-Los Angeles. “Ithink consumers should be more skeptical of the pharmaceutical ads thansome 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 lifestylechanges as an alternative to medication (for example, diet and exerciseto lower cholesterol), although about a fifth mentioned such changes asan adjunct to medication.

•Only a quarter of the commercials mentioned how common or uncommon the treated disease is.