It's Time to Stop Direct-to-Consumer Drug Advertising
Drugs can heal, but they can also cause harm. Deciding which drug is best for the patient is something that takes training. That's why drugs must be prescribed by doctors.
The argument for allowing drug companies to advertise on television is that an "educated patient is a better patient." That's true. But drug commercials are not educational. They are designed for 
marketing purposes. A commercial's only purpose is to get you to buy something, not to tell you what you need to know to make the best decision as a consumer.
Like commercials for any other product, drug commercials highlight the product's benefits and downplay the risks. When a commercial does include information about risks, the warning is usually wrapped with "emotive imagery" that isn't consistent with the words used. That blunts the warning's effectiveness.
As a result of drug commercials, doctors are now asked by their patients to prescribe a particular brand drug -- something that was unheard of years ago. A doctor may now find herself in the position of having to explain to the patient how the patient has been misled by the drug company's advertisements. That can make things uncomfortable for the doctor. So when the patient has been taken in by the "buzz" that an effective commercial creates, the doctor feels pressure to prescribe a medication that she might not otherwise prescribe. Drug commercials therefore get in the way of the doctor/patient relationship, and disrupt the therapeutic process.
It took us years to realize that tobacco commercials served society no good purpose and so should be taken off television. It's now time to put an end to drug commercials as well.
