Healthy Skepticism Library item: 1969
Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.
Publication type: Journal Article
Pinkus RL.
From Lydia Pinkham to Bob Dole: what the changing face of direct-to-consumer drug advertising reveals about the professionalism of medicine.
Kennedy Inst Ethics J 2002 Jun; 12:(2):141-58
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=12476915
Abstract:
From its founding in 1847, the AMA divided drugs into “ethical” and “unethical” preparations. Those that were ethical had a known composition and were advertised only to the profession. Other, patent medicines (technically proprietary drugs, whose trademarks were protected by copyright), were sold directly to the public. In spite of the AMA’s efforts to ban the advertising and sale of those nostrums, proprietary drugs flourished during the nineteenth century. Starting in 1900, however, three major societal trends combined to bolster the AMA’s campaign, and by 1920 almost all advertising was directed to physicians, who would then prescribe medications to their patients. This ban on advertising pharmaceuticals directly to the public remained virtually unchanged until approximately 1980. Since then, it has slowly eroded and, as recently as 1997, the FDA created guidelines for pharmaceutical companies to advertise on television. What does this change say about the profession of medicine, the role of the physician in society, and the doctor-patient relationship? Using a comparative historical approach, this paper examines these issues.
Keywords:
Advertising/ethics*
Advertising/history
Advertising/legislation & jurisprudence
Advertising/standards*
American Medical Association
Complementary Therapies
Consumer Participation*
Drug Industry/economics*
Drug Industry/ethics*
Drug Industry/history
Drug Industry/legislation & jurisprudence
Ethics, Medical
Government Regulation
History, 19th Century*
History, 20th Century*
Humans
Interprofessional Relations
Journalism
Pharmaceutical Preparations/economics*
Pharmaceutical Preparations/history
Physician's Role*/history
Physician-Patient Relations
Professional Autonomy
Quackery/history
Sociology, Medical/history*
United States
United States Food and Drug Administration
*analysis
United States
FDA
Food and Drug Administration
American Medical Association
history
ethical drugs
patent medicines
DTCA
direct-to-consumer advertising
doctor-patient relationship
ATTITUDES REGARDING PROMOTION: HEALTH PROFESSIONALS
ATTITUDES REGARDING PROMOTION: REGULATORS AND GOVERNMENT
INFLUENCE OF PROMOTION: DOCTOR-PATIENT RELATIONSHIP
INFLUENCE OF PROMOTION: PROFESSIONALISM
INFORMATION FROM INDUSTRY: PATIENTS AND CONSUMERS
PROMOTION AS A SOURCE OF INFORMATION: CONSUMERS AND PATIENTS
PROMOTIONAL TECHNIQUES: DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER ADVERTISING
REGULATIONS, CODES, GUIDELINES: DIRECT GOVERNMENT REGULATION
