The pharmaceutical industry and the internet: Are drug company funded depression websites biased?

Abstract

Background: The pharmaceutical industry has been shown to have a pervasive influence in the mental health field. A recent study found that drug company funded websites were more likely to explain schizophrenia with a bias favourable to the sale of medication.

Aims: The aim of this study was to investigate whether the pharmaceutical industry is influencing the content of depression websites.

Method: Google and Yahoo search engines were used to generate the top 50 depression websites. Likert scales measured the extent to which biomedical approaches were presented by the websites.

Results: Drug company funded sites were significantly more likely than non-drug-company funded sites to espouse aetiology in keeping with the biomedical paradigm. Drug company funded sites also scored significantly higher on an overall Total score (a measure including aetiology and treatment scores and defining depression as an illness or disease).

Conclusions: These findings are discussed in the context of recent research confirming the limited efficacy of antidepressant drugs and the negative impact biomedical explanations have on public perceptions of depression.

Keywords:

• Depression
• internet
• pharmaceutical industry
• antidepressant medication

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.