Gender bias in antidepressant direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising

Direct to consumer pharmaceutical advertising (DTCPA) may have significant impacts on public perception of diseases and treatments. Our objective was to examine whether DTCPA for antidepressants disproportionately portray and hence target women in the United States.

DTCPA for branded medications for depression, psoriasis and diabetes were analyzed to determine the gender of the main "patient" portrayed, as well as the content of the disease depiction.

DTCPA for antidepressants included only women in 82% of ads, only men in 10.1% of ads, and both genders in 7.8% of ads. There were significantly higher representations of women versus men in DTCPA for antidepressants (82%) compared to either psoriasis (50.4%) or diabetes (37.6%) medications. These differences remained statistically significant even after adjusting for gender disparities in disease prevalence.

Antidepressant DTCPA in the United States disproportionately target women. There are potential adverse consequences for both women and men resulting from unequal representations in DTCPA for antidepressant medications.