SOCY 200 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Pharmaceutical Drug

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Social Sci, Edu and Soc Work - Sociology
• Course: SOCY 200
• Professor: Cynthia Levine-Rasky

Document Summary

Direct-to-consumer advertising = advertising for various sorts of drugs to the public through the mass media. This form of advertising is directed towards patients, rather than healthcare professionals. Forms of advertising include tv, radio, social media, print, etc. Goal: influence the patient-physician dialogue in order to increase sales of a specific pharmaceutical drug. However, even though there are advantages (educated patients and allowed them to take charge of their own health) to (cid:515)direct-to-consumer advertising(cid:516), this practice has been criticized in a number of ways. Specifically due to the extent in which ads may influence the prescribing of prescription medication based on consumer demands when in some cases they are not medically necessary. Although direct-to-consumer advertising may educate patients, it also has the ability to mislead them. It misleads them into demanding advertised drugs, resulting in unnecessary treatment. Consumers place a lot of trust in these advertisements, even though dtca omits important information.