Sex bias in psychoactive drug advertisements.

A recent concern has been the possible effect of sex-role stereotypes upon physicians' prescription patterns. In an attempt to examine the part played by drug advertisements, this paper will present a content analysis of psychoactive (mood-modifying) drug ads appearing in the American Journal of Psychiatry over a 17-year period; and a study of subjects' perceptions of the patients depicted in these drug ads across eight dimensions emerging from the content analysis. An initial perusal of psychoactive drug ads in professional medical journals suggested the existence of a sex bias: Females appeared to be presented as patients more often than males, and in a much more demeaning manner. The present analyses were done in an attempt to discover if a sex bias does exist in drug advertisements, which may influence the physician's perception of his or her patients, and subsequently, his or her prescription patterns.