This is a re-post from GeriPal – Geriatrics and Palliative Care Blog, you can also read the article at GeriPal and check out some of their other posts.
Embracing Direct-to-Consumer Advertising by Focusing on Stopping Medications
There are plenty of examples of direct-to-consumer advertising that the pharmaceutical industry use to lure new customers. Just like the Cancer Center ads we discussed in the last GeriPal post, these ads almost universally do this by making emotional appeals to the consumer, as well as focusing on the benefits rather than presenting any real discussion of risks.
What if someone used a similar concept, but instead of trying to get people to take a drug, they try to convince patients to stop one. That’s just what Cara Tannenbaum and colleagues did in a paper published in JAMA IM, albeit they called it direct-to-consumer patient education and empowerment.
