Prescription drug advertising and consumer stigma about depression: The moderating role of skepticism toward advertising

Abstract

The current study was designed to explore how consumers’ exposure to direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) of antidepressants would relate to the extent of stigma they hold toward clinical depression, and how such an association would be moderated by the level of skeptical attitudes toward the advertising category. The results showed that when skepticism was low, exposure to DTCA of antidepressants was positively associated with the extent of stigma toward depression. A negative relationship between DTCA exposure and endorsement of stigma was observed only when the level of skepticism was extremely high. In an exploratory analysis, the study further found that among individuals with personal and interpersonal experiences of depression, DTCA exposure might strengthen depression stigma, while such a relationship was not observed among those with a lower level of depression-related life experiences. This study concluded by discussing the implications of the findings for health professionals as well as the practice and social responsibility of DTCA.

Keywords:

• Direct-to-consumer advertising
• Drug industry
• Health behavior
• Health literacy
• Marketing
• Physician–patient relations
• Social stigma
• Stereotyping

Disclaimer statements

Contributors There are no other contributors. The sole author takes full credit for all the contribution.

Funding None.

Conflicts of interest There are no conflicts of interest regarding this research project or manuscript.

Ethics approval The institutional review board for human participants at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville approved the research protocol. All respondents provided an informed consent for their participation in the study.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jin Seong Park

Jin Seong Park is an assistant professor at Incheon National University Institute of Social Sciences-South Korea. He earned his PhD from the University of Florida in Gainesville, MA from Marquette University in Milwaukee, and BA from Korea University in Seoul, South Korea. His research interests include health communication, health literacy, prescription-only drug advertising, biases, and heuristics in consumer behavior, theories of information processing, and green appeals in advertising.