Análise bioética da propaganda e publicidade de medicamentos

Abstract

This study investigates how advertising campaigns for drugs influence drug prescription practices among physicians from a point of view of "protection ethics" and of "intervention bioethics". It also analyzes information quality in advertisements for prescription drugs before and after the ANVISA (National Agency for Sanitary Protection) RDC 102/200 Resolution wich regulates drugs advertising as well as discusses the regulating role of the state in this area. A first approach was to interview 50 physicians in Brasília/DF (25 general physicians and 25 surgeons) in order to examine how they perceive the effects of advertisement on their professional activities. A second approach was to study 10 publicity pieces, five from before and five from after the RDC Resolution. The results showed that: a) 98% of phsicians are visited by sales representatives on a regular basis; b) 86% of physicians receive gifts during these visits; c) 68% beleive that advertising strongly influences prescription practices; d) 14% related prescription practices to the receival of rewards; e) 68% beleive that information contained in advertisements is unreliable; f) before the RDC Resolution, 28% of advertisements had adequate information content (counter-indications, indications precautions, warnings, and adverse reactions); after the RDC Resolution, that number grew to 79%.

Caracterização de demandas judiciais de fornecimento de medicamentos "essenciais" no Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

“…A publicidade de medicamentos, por exemplo, exerce forte influência sobre o padrão de prescrição dos médicos na ausência de ferramentas eficazes de controle sobre a veracidade das informações 24 .…”

Análise de informes publicitários distribuídos em farmácias e drogarias

“…The same problem was verifi ed in other studies. 2 The antiinfective drugs for systemic use were also announced, a worrying fact due to the possibility of development of bacterial resistance because of inadequate use. 4 Many announcements did not inform therapeutic indication and contraindications of the drugs.…”

“…In this context, high quality of the provided information is essential to avoid the irrational use of drugs, 2,4 since this may result in the aggravation of health problems that already existed or even cause the development of diseases, leading to unnecessary expenses. 2 Due to the infl uence of the propaganda made by the pharmaceutical industry or by institutions that commercialize these products, non-medical phenomena are becoming more and more medicalized. An example of this is the abusive stimulus to the utilization of drugs for attention defi cit disorder in children and for depression treatments.…”

Propagandas de medicamentos psicoativos: análise das informações científicas

“…The contents of Brazilian advertisements are more subjective and incomplete compared to same drug materials advertised in the UK and US. 3,15,16 Several studies 1,7,12 and systematic reviews 19,24 have described the effect of drug promotional materials on medical prescription. Above all, it is a more serious issue for psychoactive drug advertising since it tends to be less informative than other medicinal drug promotional materials.…”