Drug advertisements and the medicalization of unipolar depression in women

Abstract

Unipolar depression occurs twice as frequently among women as among men, and the pharmacological industry maintains a massive advertising campaign that encourages psychiatric professionals to rely on antidepressant medication as the solution to this problem. The pictorial content of drug advertisements shows women as victims of depression. The social problems and situational stresses associated with unipolar depression are never shown, and depression is assumed to be a personal and biological illness, its etiology decontextualized. In these advertisements, women are not offered a choice between medical and nonmedical treatment and are not empowered to become more active participants in their health decisions. Therapists are urged to become alert to this oversimplification.