Psychopharmaceutical medications should be permitted in public spaces such as television, radio, and train stations. These advertisements provide knowledge to consumers and improve their choices and decision making. However, the advertisements should carry detailed information on possible adverse effects and the efficacy of the drugs.
Psychopharmaceutical medications are essential in deterring potentially suicidal patients from actualizing their thoughts. However, these drugs have been shown to cause severe adverse effects that may lead to an increased rate of suicide. Healy (2002) outlines two research studies and a case study that proves these claims. In a study carried out at the psychiatric unit in North Wales University, two participants, out of a sample of 20, become seriously suicidal by using sertraline drug. A previous Pfizer study reports the same results on female volunteers. Pfizer terminated its study earlier than anticipated due to participants becoming more agitated (Healy, 2002, p. 251). In a more devastating case study, a 13-year-old student committed suicide after a week of using sertraline to treat nervous problems (Healy, 2002, p. 252). These scenarios indicate that psychopharmaceutical medications have fatal adverse effects, and public advertisements offer a crucial way to provide these details to potential users.
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Despite the glaring evidence on these drugs' adverse effects, critics of public advertisements argue that these drugs are only prescribed by physicians, thus well under control. The argument fails to recognize that there are possible conflicts of interest between physicians, manufactures, and clients. Pharmaceutical companies fund physicians in research projects, thus unhealthy to entrust them fully in protecting the public (Healy, 202, p. 253). Even though public adverts may deter patients who might have benefitted from these drugs, it provides adequate patient knowledge and information, thus hastening the quality of decision making and consensus between patients and physicians. Therefore, these adverts should be permitted in public spaces.
Reference
Healy, D. I. (2002). Conflicting interests in Toronto: Anatomy of a controversy at the interface of academia and industry. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine , 45 (2), 250-263. https://doi.org/10.1353/pbm.2002.0028
