Anthropology
Open Access

Merrill Singer

Publications

• Review Article
  "Pharmapatienthood": The Patient Constructed in Direct-to-Consumer Drug Advertising
  
  Author(s): Bayla Ostrach M and Jacqueline EvansBayla Ostrach M and Jacqueline Evans
  
  Over the last 15 years there has been a large body of research and considerable public debate on directto-consumer (DTC) advertising for prescription pharmaceuticals. Concerns include the accuracy, fairness, consequences, and gender messages of these advertisements. Less attention has been paid to the role of DTC advertisement in the social construction of patienthood in American society. Based on a content analysis of a sample of 40 broadcast DTC ads, this paper addresses two questions: What is a patient as constructed through this communication channel? What are the messages about what how patients should feel and act embedded in DTC advertising? In short, we seek to understand what might be called the construction of pharmapatienthood. Moreover, we argue that the scripting of patienthood in DTC pharmaceutical advertising forms part of a discourse regime that can be read as containi.. View More»
  DOI: 10.4172/2332-0915.1000101

  Abstract

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