The British Journal of Psychiatry (2000) 177: 467-468
© 2000 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Stigmatising pharmaceutical advertisements
D. McKay
Department of Psychological Medicine, The University of Sydney, Block 4
Level 5, Royal North Shore Hospital, St Leonards, NSW 2065, Australia
EDITED BY MATTHEW HOTOPF
The general public holds stigmatising attitudes toward those with mental
disorder, with schizophrenia being rated as highly associated with
dangerousness and unpredictability (Crisp
et al, 2000). The authors mention that health
professionals may share some of these views. After reading their article, I
was struck by a number of pharmaceutical advertisements elsewhere in the same
issue of the Journal, that appeared to perpetuate a negative image of
schizophrenia. My curiosity thus stimulated, I performed a cursory lunchbreak
study examining the portrayal of people with mental disorder in pharmaceutical
advertising in three recent issues of international psychiatric journals
(Table 1). It was notable that
all the advertising for antidepressants had positive imagery. Indeed this was
also largely true for the ‘other’ category, with only one
negatively rated advertisement.
By contrast, three out of five advertisements for antipsychotic medications
in this Journal were negative. One was particularly striking, a
fearful young man peering through a door, his house covered in foil. The copy
included the following: "His parents have to withstand torrents of
verbal abuse. And Constant threats of violence". This small sample also
suggests that there may be international variations in advertising in the
field; what underlies this is unclear. It is intriguing, however, that the
British advertising mirrors the attitudes of surveyed householders.
How can we expect the general public to have a rational and informed
approach to people with schizophrenia when learned journals accept
advertisements that promote a product through negative stereotyping? Perhaps
our willingness to allow this to happen is in accord with work in the field
which suggests that health professionals may have even more negative attitudes
to mental disorder than the general public
(Jorm et al, 1999). A
public campaign to combat stigma is undoubtedly important, but perhaps we
should be prepared to examine our own beliefs about serious mental illness as
a prelude to changing attitudes in society at large.
REFERENCES
Crisp, A. H., Gelder, M. G., Rix, S., et al
(2000) Stigmatisation of people with mental illnesses.
British Journal of Psychiatry,
177, 4-7.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
Jorm, A. F., Korten, A. E., Jacomb, P. A., et al
(1999) Attitudes towards people with a mental disorder: a
survey of the Australian public and health professionals.
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry,
33, 77-83.[CrossRef][Medline]
