Gender bias in antidepressant direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising.

BACKGROUND: Direct to consumer pharmaceutical advertising (DTCPA) may have significant impacts on public perception of diseases and treatments. Our objective was to examine whether DTCPA for antidepressants disproportionately portray and hence target women in the United States. METHODS: DTCPA for branded medications for depression, psoriasis and diabetes were analyzed to determine the gender of the main "patient" portrayed, as well as the content of the disease depiction. RESULTS: DTCPA for antidepressants included only women in 82% of ads, only men in 10.1% of ads, and both genders in 7.8% of ads. There were significantly higher representations of women versus men in DTCPA for antidepressants (82%) compared to either psoriasis (50.4%) or diabetes (37.6%) medications. These differences remained statistically significant even after adjusting for gender disparities in disease prevalence. CONCLUSIONS: Antidepressant DTCPA in the United States disproportionately target women. There are potential adverse consequences for both women and men resulting from unequal representations in DTCPA for antidepressant medications.

The sociological basis of the skin cancer epidemic.

Given the precipitous rise in its incidence in recent decades, skin cancer has been recognized as a growing epidemic. We explore the sociological underpinnings of this epidemic, including: (1) aging of the demographic; (2) human ecologic factors (residing in areas with high ambient ultraviolet levels and a depleted ozone layer); (3) large-scale European migration to more equatorial latitudes; (4) social structures that for centuries minimized miscegenation and maximized segregation; (5) gender-based differences in sunbathing, tanning, sunscreen use, and clothing choice; (6) occupational ultraviolet exposure; (7) the complex interplay of socioeconomic status, race, and urbanization on skin cancer incidence and mortality; (8) the effects of war on skin cancer incidence; (9) cultural shifts in clothing, travel, outdoor sports, recreation, and attitudes towards being tan; and (10) the indirect effects of religion. We show that without these sociological factors, the most common type of cancer would not be nearly as common.