Skip to content
  • About
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Book
  • Careers
  • Podcast
  • Recommended
  • Speaking
  • All
  • Physician
  • Practice
  • Policy
  • Finance
  • Conditions
  • .edu
  • Patient
  • Meds
  • Tech
  • Social
  • Video
    • All
    • Physician
    • Practice
    • Policy
    • Finance
    • Conditions
    • .edu
    • Patient
    • Meds
    • Tech
    • Social
    • Video
    • About
    • Contact
    • Contribute
    • Book
    • Careers
    • Podcast
    • Recommended
    • Speaking

These journal ads could not run today

Martha Rosenberg
Meds
July 5, 2021
Share
Tweet
Share

Many drug ads in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s would offend today.

In an ad for Valium, we are told that the woman pictured (“Jan”) is “psychoneurotic” because she is unmarried at age 35. “You probably see many such Jans in your practice,” says the ad—“The unmarrieds with low self-esteem. Jan never found a man to measure up to her father.”

Valium was also added to hormones to treat menopause. “Sally Wilson has lost her reputation,” says a headline over a woman in reading glasses with a ream of papers, who appears to be an office worker. “In the last week or so, Sally Wilson’s year-old reputation as an unpredictable grouch has melted away.” Why? “Sally’s menopause had triggered symptoms that hormone therapy by itself apparently hadn’t helped,” but adjunctive Valium has “helped her relax.” Now Sally has “been coming in on time and turning out more work,” says the ad.

(In 1946, an ad from Smith, Kline & French in Psychosomatic Medicine actually calls electric shock one of “fundamental measures” for menopause. Yes, electric shock.)

Contempt for patients was not hidden in many early ads. An ad for the sleeping pill Quaalude reads, “Now the physician has one less tired, sleepy and apprehensive patient to contend with.” Contend? Another recommends psychoactive drugs, “If She Calls You Morning … Noon … and Night Day After Day.”

Situational malaises were also treated with medication. “I’m restless, nervous, tired all the time and always nagging,” says an ad for the antidepressant Sinequan on a backdrop of dirty dishes needing washing. Another Sinequan ad shows a woman hanging clothes on a clothesline with the headline, “A lot of little things are wrong. Headaches, diarrhea, this rash on my arm. And sometimes I think I don’t like being married.” Another Jan who can’t find a husband to measure up to dear old Dad?

“Why is this woman tired?” asks another ad. She may be like “many of your patients—particularly housewives—[who] are crushed under a load of dull, routine duties that leave them in a state of mental and emotional fatigue. For these patients, you may find ‘Dexedrine’ an ideal prescription.”

Some drug ads in old medical journals are shockingly misogynistic. “A sleeping pill for night squawks” was the headline for an ad for the hypnotic sedative Doriden in a 1969 issue of JAMA. “She has insomnia . . . so he’s awake,” says the copy, empathizing with the man, not the woman. “Restless and irritable, she growls at her husband. How can this shrew be tamed?” Yes: The ad calls the woman a shrew.

An ad for the psychoactive drug Triavil adds ageism onto the sexism. Showing an older, wrinkly woman in a bouffant wig with hair bows, gigantic sunglasses, and garish jewelry, the headline—“Lady, your anxiety is showing (over a coexisting depression)”— is disrespectfully written right across her nose.

“On the visible level, this middle-aged patient dresses to look too young, exhibits a tense, continuous smile and may have bitten nails or overplucked eyebrows,” says the ad copy. “What doesn’t show as clearly is the coexisting depression.”

Children were also overly medicated. As early as 1956, ads for the antipsychotic Thorazine said it “reduces hyperactivity and aggressiveness, decreases anxiety and hostility [and] improves mood, behavior and sleeping patterns . . . in belligerent, overactive children.” It was also advertised for childhood vomiting.

The tranquilizer Miltown was similarly advertised for “a wide range of tension/anxiety-related disorders of children and adolescents, ranging from tics and tantrums to ‘school headache’ and stammering.”

Thorazine was also advertised for treatment of alcoholism, asthma, bursitis, arthritis, cancer, the fear of cancer, ulcers, psoriasis, senility, menopause, and hiccups in adults. Yes: hiccups.

ADVERTISEMENT

While many direct-to-consumer (DTC) ads today “sell” diseases and escalate minor conditions to make a patient “ask you doctor,” ads before DTC ads were often not better.

Martha Rosenberg is a health reporter and the author of Born With a Junk Food Deficiency.  

Image credit: Shutterstock.com 

Prev

Nothing prepared me for telehealth’s nightmare

July 5, 2021 Kevin 2
…
Next

How I used social media to get promoted to professor

July 5, 2021 Kevin 1
…

Tagged as: Medications

Post navigation

< Previous Post
Nothing prepared me for telehealth’s nightmare
Next Post >
How I used social media to get promoted to professor

ADVERTISEMENT

More by Martha Rosenberg

  • How drugmakers manipulate your health from diagnosis to prescription

    Martha Rosenberg
  • Conflicts of interest are eroding trust in U.S. health agencies

    Martha Rosenberg
  • How drug companies turned “depression” into a billion-dollar industry

    Martha Rosenberg

Related Posts

  • Drug ads are a campaign against physician trust

    Judy Salz, MD
  • Here’s why direct-to-consumer drug ads need FDA oversight

    Zachariah Tman
  • #Medbikini unmasks bias and forces the retraction of a journal article

    Alissa Brotman O'Neill, DO
  • Are hospital ads just unregulated false hope?

    Elina Serrano
  • Sleep and the medical profession have an uneasy relationship

    Yoo Jung Kim, MD
  • The other opioid epidemic that we ignore

    Hans Duvefelt, MD

More in Meds

  • From stigma to science: Rethinking the U.S. drug scheduling system

    Artin Asadipooya
  • How drugmakers manipulate your health from diagnosis to prescription

    Martha Rosenberg
  • The food-drug interaction risks your doctor may be missing

    Frank Jumbe
  • Why retail pharmacies are the future of diverse clinical trials

    Shelli Pavone
  • Why does rifaximin cost 95 percent more in the U.S. than in Asia?

    Jai Kumar, MD, Brian Nohomovich, DO, PhD and Leonid Shamban, DO
  • A world without antidepressants: What could possibly go wrong?

    Tomi Mitchell, MD
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Why are medical students turning away from primary care? [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Why “do no harm” might be harming modern medicine

      Sabooh S. Mubbashar, MD | Physician
    • How New Mexico became a malpractice lawsuit hotspot

      Patrick Hudson, MD | Physician
    • Why doctors are reclaiming control from burnout culture

      Maureen Gibbons, MD | Physician
    • Why helping people means more than getting an MD

      Vaishali Jha | Education
    • Why public health must be included in AI development

      Laura E. Scudiere, RN, MPH | Tech
  • Past 6 Months

    • Why tracking cognitive load could save doctors and patients

      Hiba Fatima Hamid | Education
    • Why are medical students turning away from primary care? [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • What the world must learn from the life and death of Hind Rajab

      Saba Qaiser, RN | Conditions
    • Why “do no harm” might be harming modern medicine

      Sabooh S. Mubbashar, MD | Physician
    • Here’s what providers really need in a modern EHR

      Laura Kohlhagen, MD, MBA | Tech
    • Why flashy AI tools won’t fix health care without real infrastructure

      David Carmouche, MD | Tech
  • Recent Posts

    • Why helping people means more than getting an MD

      Vaishali Jha | Education
    • How digital tools are reshaping the doctor-patient relationship

      Vineet Vishwanath | Tech
    • Why evidence-based management may be an effective strategy for stronger health care leadership and equity

      Olumuyiwa Bamgbade, MD | Physician
    • Why health care leaders fail at execution—and how to fix it

      Dave Cummings, RN | Policy
    • Residency match tips: Building mentorship, research, and community

      Simran Kaur, MD and Eva Shelton, MD | Education
    • From Founding Fathers to modern battles: physician activism in a politicized era [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.


Find jobs at
Careers by KevinMD.com

Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.

Learn more

View 4 Comments >

Founded in 2004 by Kevin Pho, MD, KevinMD.com is the web’s leading platform where physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, medical students, and patients share their insight and tell their stories.

Social

  • Like on Facebook
  • Follow on Twitter
  • Connect on Linkedin
  • Subscribe on Youtube
  • Instagram

ADVERTISEMENT

  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Why are medical students turning away from primary care? [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Why “do no harm” might be harming modern medicine

      Sabooh S. Mubbashar, MD | Physician
    • How New Mexico became a malpractice lawsuit hotspot

      Patrick Hudson, MD | Physician
    • Why doctors are reclaiming control from burnout culture

      Maureen Gibbons, MD | Physician
    • Why helping people means more than getting an MD

      Vaishali Jha | Education
    • Why public health must be included in AI development

      Laura E. Scudiere, RN, MPH | Tech
  • Past 6 Months

    • Why tracking cognitive load could save doctors and patients

      Hiba Fatima Hamid | Education
    • Why are medical students turning away from primary care? [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • What the world must learn from the life and death of Hind Rajab

      Saba Qaiser, RN | Conditions
    • Why “do no harm” might be harming modern medicine

      Sabooh S. Mubbashar, MD | Physician
    • Here’s what providers really need in a modern EHR

      Laura Kohlhagen, MD, MBA | Tech
    • Why flashy AI tools won’t fix health care without real infrastructure

      David Carmouche, MD | Tech
  • Recent Posts

    • Why helping people means more than getting an MD

      Vaishali Jha | Education
    • How digital tools are reshaping the doctor-patient relationship

      Vineet Vishwanath | Tech
    • Why evidence-based management may be an effective strategy for stronger health care leadership and equity

      Olumuyiwa Bamgbade, MD | Physician
    • Why health care leaders fail at execution—and how to fix it

      Dave Cummings, RN | Policy
    • Residency match tips: Building mentorship, research, and community

      Simran Kaur, MD and Eva Shelton, MD | Education
    • From Founding Fathers to modern battles: physician activism in a politicized era [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast

MedPage Today Professional

An Everyday Health Property Medpage Today
  • Terms of Use | Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • DMCA Policy
All Content © KevinMD, LLC
Site by Outthink Group

These journal ads could not run today
4 comments

Comments are moderated before they are published. Please read the comment policy.

Loading Comments...