M e d i c i n e A ve 2 Frank Hone Believe it or not, there once was a time when the syndrome of erectile dysfunction and the side effects of a cholesterol pill were not part of the evening television news or weekend sports coverage. In fact, there was a time when most Americans couldn't even cite the name of a prescription medication they weren't actually using. Those were the days before direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising of prescription drugs. Today, DTC is everywhere—on billboards, online, on TV, and on waiting room walls. Consumers are exposed to DTC ads many times throughout the day. There are those who still don't understand some of what is said in the TV spots, given the array of contraindications and side effects that saturate the copy, but the shock of having unusual and disturbing complications discussed in a television commercial has long since subsided—although the benefit of overloading consumers with such risk information has yet to be determined. 120
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDMwNDAx