G. Ficca, G. Barbato, M. Beatrice, G. Muscettola - Vol. 6, Marzo 2000, num.1
Testo Immagini Bibliografia Summary Riassunto Indice
The portrayal of patient and psychiatrist
is sexually biased in psychotropic drug advertisements
Bias sessuale nell’immagine
di paziente e psichiatra nelle pubblicità dei farmaci psicotropi
Background
Psychotropic drug advertisements may exert an important function as a mirror of the most common ideas and prejudices about mental illness amongst physicians. Only few studies in the past have moved from this perspective, adopting a dynamic approach (general subjective impressions of the rater).
Aim and Metod
The present study explores changes in the image of mental disease, by analyzing a sample of 219 advertisements extracted from a specialized journal over a period of 20 years (1975-1994).
The use of frequent visual metaphores is probably intended to mitigate the crudeness of the image of psychiatric disease, although many adverts are also based on scientific messages.
Results
The main result from our analysis is the strong sexual bias existing in the portrayal of both psychiatrist (usually depicted as male) and patient (depicted more often as females in the adverts for antidepressants and as males in those for antipsychotics).
Conclusions
This bias may possibly influence sex role modelling in the clinical practice of physicians.