Douglas Soutter wrote
>Yes - but it is being promoted as an ADD ON to steroids if these are not
>controlling your asthma (which make a change from how Salmeterol started).
>They also appear to be less effective than standard doses of steroids from
>what I have manged to read of them.  Why have all the patients I saw (well
>only two) with newspaper clippings think that they were going to
>revolutionise their asthma and also get them off their steroids.  I thought
>reporters were supposed to be skilled at informing.


I can't rmember exactly, but the telly pieces I saw did mention that it
would be used with currently used drugs, and did their best to steer that
difficult line between avoiding the use of inflammatory words like
'revolutionary' and 'breakthrough' and making the story so boring that the
editor spikes it. Perhaps it was your patients hopes, rahter than anything
particualr they read that made them think they could get off steroids?
The clinical details are difficult to put over in a 300 word news story
(with  case history) or a couple of minutes of broadcast team. I expect you
agree with me that hacks  should steer clear of saying where a drug should
be used in asthma management.


Andrew Herd wrote:  >The media is manipulated all the time. Many
reporters seem to be unaware of the fact that the pharmaceuticals get pretty
stroppy if knocking copy is written, and will withdraw advertising. Since
the editors/owners depend on the advertising for profits, a de facto
censorship of copy occurs. This is effect is quite powerful.
The drug companies spend at least 10k per annum per GP on adverts, in one of
the most successful attempts to influence target behaviour (i.e. GP
prescribing) ever mounted. I was made acutely aware of this a decade ago
>when I worked with an advertising company.

Hmmm. Depends what you mean by manipulated, I suppose. People write books -
entire series of books - about media priorities, and getting good coverage
in the media. One influence is 'the event' where everyone covers a story
(you don't want to be left out). But that is mostly a matter of emphasis.
The story has to worth doing to attract the attention in the first place.
But there are numerous other influences. I think that hype rarely puts a
non-story in a medical newspaper, although skilful PR can give an average
story more prominence than  it perhaps deserves. I would not consider that
we are manipulated all the time, any more than GPs would think they are
manipulated all the time by their patients. They might try, but it does not
always work.
Of course hacks are aware that pharmaceutical companies pay for the ads in
medical newspapers, and can kick up a fuss if they do not liek what is
written. I can't speak about the current GP tabloids because I haven't
worked in house for them for a while. When I did, there was no censorship
of copy if we wrote fair and balanced stories about side-effects of drugs.
Advertisers did threaten to withdraw advertising, and in one case I
remember, actually did. But  The main criterion was it had to be a drug
which GPs commonly prescribed.
If a pharmaceutical company complained about an accurate and fair story, we
would consider that we had done a good job. If there were inaccuracies, or
the full story had not been told because of pressure sof time and editorial
space, a follow up story might be thoght worthwhile, or the medical
director of the company might be invited to offer a letter for publication
in the letters column.
The GP press sells its ads largely on the back of the proportion of regular
GP readers they attract. Publishing history shows that the newspapers and
magazines who write for advertisers rather than readers tend not to do as
well as those whose priority is producing a magazine they think GPs will
read.
The tabloids do seem to have moved away from writing about drugs. The
commercial reason may be that GPs want to read about other things more, or
it may be a case that upsetting advertisers once in a while is more trouble
than it is worth. I do not know. You could ask them, but I don't think they
would tell you.


Apologies for the long posting. I had better get back to writing some words
that will make me some money....




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