Is a patient at liberty to diagnose his or her own affliction? If so, are they also qualified enough to know the right medication and take into consideration the drugs adverse effects? With the recent onset of direct to consumer advertising for prescription drugs, this is becoming the case. In 1994, expenditures on direct to consumer advertisements were about twenty-five-million a year. By 1998 that figure changed to about 225 million (Sasich 2). Turn on the TV, there they are. Open your favorite magazine, there they are again. Listen to the radio, congratulations, you've found another ad for the latest prescription drug. Rush down to your local physician and life will be perfect, right? Do these advertisements have a place in healthcare, where they could be potentially dangerous? Although educating the public about treatment options is not a bad thing, these advertisements are misleading the public into unnecessary treatment.

We first have to look at what an advertisement is intended to do: persuade. Advertisements for prescription medication are not only persuading the general public to get the treatment, they are telling them that they have the affliction. T

2001.

Effexor xr. Advertisement. Architectural Digest May 2001:129.

So where are they getting virtually one hundred-percent of their education? Needless to say, it is biased and suggestive advertisements, not a third party giving the education. This becomes increasingly alarming when you look at a survey that appeared in Consumer Reports magazine. The study was done by a panel of thirty-two medical specialists who evaluated ads in their own areas of medical specialty. They then assessed the accuracy of twenty-eight direct to consumer ads. Findings indicated that only "two thirds of the ads were judged to be factually accurate and backed by scientific evidence. But many left out important information or it was only in fine print" (Sasich 7). The study goes even further to say, "Only half were judged to convey important information on adverse effects in the main promotional text, and approximately forty percent were judged about efficacy and fairly described the benefits and risks in the main promotional text" (Sasich 7). This is where public education for pharmaceuticals comes from, and patients are being swayed into believing that a certain medication is right for them regardless of its adverse effects.

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1415
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)