Misleading Ads For Manic Depression Drugs
Every professional medical journal carries them. Doctors, after all, are a natural market for this type of advertising: prescription drugs. And one would think that the advertisement in a professional journal would portray the drug accurately especially when it came to psychiatric drugs - like those for manic depression.
Apparently, that's not necessarily the case. A new study published in the journal Chemistry World reveals some disturbing discoveries. Approximately half of the advertisements in journals - including the New England Journal of Medicine - contain citations that refer to primary research papers that support the claims made in the ads.
That's how it works in theory, that is. Upon closer review, the study, conducted by psychologist Glen Spielmans of Metropolitan State University, St. Paul, Minnesota and his colleagues, discovered that more than one third of the citations did not back up claims for the drugs that treat manic depression and other conditions..
The drug companies themselves provide the sources. This according to Spielmans should make it relatively easy for the companies to find one that would back a claim for example of a drug that treated manic depression.
And in fact, Spielmans's study discovered that the advertisements for the Equator (carbamazepine), used to treat manic depression, was a prime example. The ad explains that the drug is an effective treatment for the manic episodes as well as the mixed episodes of manic depression. The ad had, in fact, cited two separate sources to back up this claim. The sources cited, however, fail to do just that, according to Spielmans's study.
The actual number of citations that failed to substantiate the claims made in the ads for these drugs that treat manic depression as well as other mental illnesses is actually quite staggering. Of 53 advertisements 42 of them made at least one claim the individuals involved in the study could not substantiate. That's nearly 80 percent of the ads that are not substantiated.
Not only that, but 27 of those ads made at least one claim that could not be supported by the citations provided as proof. Another 15 made claims that were unable to be verified because the ads provided no documentation - even after the study requested trial data. Six out of the nine pharmaceutical companies involved simply did not reply to the researchers' request. One company - Wyeth - completely refused to send the data.
One company, however, did cooperate. That was Janssen Pharmaceutica. They make the drug Risperdal (risperdone) used to treat the manic episodes of manic depression, provided the group with relevant studies which accurately reflected the drug's claims.
Also included in the misrepresentation were some antidepressant drugs. According to Spielmans, antidepressants are the most prescribed drug in the United States, with $13.5 billion worth of sales. Worldwide, the sale of antidepressants total nearly $20.6 billion dollars.
Based solely on the sheer quantity of the prescriptions sold, Spielmans believes that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has a responsibility to do a better job of reviewing these ads. The FDA possesses the power to make the firms correct misleading or false advertisements. Unfortunately, the researcher noted that the federal agency is understaffed. Spielmans explains the FDA has only 21 individuals in the Division of Drug Marketing, Advertising and Communications to review more than 39,000 advertisements.
