Gender display in Scandinavian and American advertising for antidepressants

This study examines whether depiction of users of antidepressants in advert isements for antidepressants in the 1995 issues of the major medical journa l in each of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden differs from that in the American Journal of Psychiatry. The results show that the people shown in t he Danish, Finnish, and Norwegian journals are predominantly women, whereas depiction of users in the American and Swedish advertising is predominantl y of couples. The portrayals in the 1995 advertising are of antidepressants as female gendered; a feature that was not seen in advertising for psychot ropic drugs in the Nordic countries in the 1980s.