Perpetuating stigma?: Differences between advertisements for psychiatric and non-psychiatric medication in two professional journals

Abstract

Background: Continuing debates regarding advertising and the pharmaceutical industry, and others detailing the continued stigmatization of mental health problems.

Aims: To establish whether there are any differences in advertisements for psychiatric and non-psychiatric medication aimed at health professionals.

Method: Quantitative (t-tests, Chi-squared) and qualitative analysis of all unique advertisements for medication that appeared in two professional journals (the British Medical Journal and the British Journal of Psychiatry) between October 2005 and September 2006 was undertaken. Close attention was paid to both images and text used in the advertisements.

Results: Significant differences were found between advertisements for psychiatric and non-psychiatric medication in both quantitative and qualitative analysis: advertisements for psychiatric medication contain less text and are less likely to include specific information about the actual drug than non-psychiatric medication advertisements; images used in advertisements for psychiatric medication are more negative than those used for non-psychiatric medication, and are less likely to portray people in everyday situations.

Conclusion: A distinction between mental health problems and other forms of ill health is clearly being maintained in medication advertisements; this has potentially stigmatizing consequences, both for professional and public perceptions. There are also troubling implications in light of the debates surrounding Direct to Consumer Advertising.

Keywords:

• Advertisements
• medication
• professionals
• mental health problems
• stigma

Declaration of interest: The author reports no conflicts of interest. The author alone is responsible for the content and writing of the paper.