ABSTRACT
The practice of direct-to-consumer (DTC) prescription drug advertising is unique to the United States and New Zealand. Given the vast spending on DTC advertising in the U.S., it is hardly surprising that researchers have explored the potential benefits (e.g., informing patients about symptoms of health conditions) and problems (e.g., a negative impact on the physician-patient relationship) associated with the advertisements. As researchers have explored a host of issues around DTC advertising, the ethics of DTC advertising in general and of the specific techniques and tactics employed in the ads is often secondary to the formal study goals. In other instances, the ethical issues are more philosophical in nature and not directly related to a specific research question or investigation. As such, there is a need for more structured and formal discussion of the ethics of DTC prescription drug advertising that might benefit all parties involved—a better and more ethical system of DTC drug advertising could benefit consumers, healthcare providers, and pharmaceutical companies. The purpose of this chapter is to highlight ethical issues and questions related to DTC drug advertising that to this point have not been sufficiently addressed in the literature.
