Introduction

As part of the promotion database you will find four reviews covering some of the material. These reviews were written to provide an overview of what is and is not known in four key areas:

- What attitudes do people (professional and lay) have to promotion?
- What impact does pharmaceutical promotion have on attitudes and knowledge?
- What impact does pharmaceutical promotion have on behaviour?
- What interventions have been tried to counter promotional activities, and with what results?

The idea is to allow users of the database to understand the research that has been done on promotion, the strengths and weaknesses of that research, and to suggest some directions for future research.

These reviews summarise the research evidence and therefore they do not include all of the material contained in the database. Only entries based on original research, systematic reviews or meta-analyses are included. Although they are important, other material in the database (such as commentaries about the effects of promotion) are not discussed in these reviews.

The reviews were written by Pauline Norris (University of Otago, New Zealand) and reviewed and revised by Andrew Herxheimer (founding editor, Drug & Therapeutics Bulletin) with help from Joel Lexchin (York University & University of Toronto), Peter Mansfield (Healthy Skepticism & University of Adelaide), Margaret Ewen (HAI-Europe) and Hans Hogerzeil (WHO EDM). The reviews will be periodically updated as the database grows.

 

See Index | Date Entered : Tuesday, June 10, 2003