[Written drug advertisements--are they reliable?].
BACKGROUND
Drug advertisements affect the practice and continuous education of physicians. We assessed whether drug advertisements in Norway were in accordance with national regulations in the field.


METHODS
All drug advertisements received by three general practitioners during a period of three months were collected. One advertisement for each of the 50 pharmaceutical products most frequently advertised was reviewed, available references obtained, and the information evaluated in relation to Norwegian regulations.


RESULTS
A total of 294 advertisements for 77 different products were reviewed. The 50 chosen advertisements contained 191 reference citations, of which 93% were retrieved. The originator of the advertisement in question provided 72% of the references we asked for. We identified 262 promotional claims for which the regulations require a reference citation. Of these, 135 (52%) did not comply with the regulations, including 15 (6%) that were false.


CONCLUSIONS
Only half of the information presented in drug advertisements was correct and clinically relevant. Relatively few statements were false, but a considerable proportion of statements gave an excessively positive picture of the product; hence, in general, this kind of information has no value as a source of information.
Solhaug
Håvard Rein
HR
Institutt for laboratoriemedisin, barne- og kvinnesykdommer, Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet, 7489 Trondheim.
Indermo
Hanne
H
Slørdal
Lars
L
Spigset
Olav
O
D000329:Advertising / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D016265:Conflict of Interest; D004345:Drug Industry; D004346:Drug Information Services / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000592:standards*; D005194:Family Practice; D006801:Humans; D009664:Norway; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'