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EDITORIALS: Barbara Mintzes Direct to consumer advertising of prescription drugs BMJ 2008; 337: a985 [Full text]

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Direct Consumer Advertising

Edzard Ernst   (5 September 2008)

Direct Consumer Advertising 5 September 2008
Edzard Ernst, Director of Complementary Medicine Peninsula Medical School, Universities of Exeter & Plymouth, 25 Victoria Park Road, Exeter, EX2 4NT Send response to journal: Re: Direct Consumer Advertising	The articles by Mintzes 1 and Law et al 2 remind us that direct consumer advertising can have detrimental effects on public health. The lesson is that we should be vigilant about attempts to introduce direct consumer advertising in Europe. In my field, complementary medicine, direct consumer advertising has long been a fact and, I fear, a menace. Two examples may suffice. Many non-doctor homeopaths advertise “homeopathic-vaccination” as an alternative to conventional immunization - despite the facts that there is no evidence that this might be effective and that their professional organization (The Society of Homeopaths) warns against such behaviour. Even the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of that society, Ralf Jeutter, has a website stating: “our clinic offers alternative immunisation programmes for the whole family” (www.thehomeopath.org.uk). Many chiropractors and their professional organizations claim that chiropractic is an effective treatment for asthma despite the fact that a Cochrane review failed to show that it works 3 and the most rigorous trial demonstrated that chiropractic is not effective for asthma 4. The British Chiropractic Association claims, for instance, that “there is evidence to show that chiropractic care has helped children with…asthma…” (www.chiropractic-uk.co.uk). So direct advertising is a serious problem and it seems to me that, in complementary medicine, it is prevalent. E. Ernst Complementary Medicine, Peninsula Medical School, Universities of Exeter & Plymouth Reference List (1) Mintzes B. Direct to consumer advertising of prescription drugs. Even attenuated forms such as cross border advertising can cause harm. BMJ 2008; 337:a985. (2) Law M, Majumdar SR, Soumerai SB. Effect of illicit direct to consumer advertising on use of etanercept, mometasone, and tegaserod in Canada. BMJ 2008; 337:a1055. (3) Hondras MA, Linde K, Jones AP. Manual therapy for asthma. The Cochrane Library 2000; 1:1-16. (4) Balon J, Aker PD, Crowther ER, Danielson C, Cox PG, O'Shaughnessy D et al. Chiropractic is not efficacious as an adjunct therapy for childhood asthma. New Engl J Med 1998; 339:1013-1020. Competing interests: None declared