Direct-to-Consumer Marketing of Dietary Supplements for Dementia: An Example of Unhealthy Commerce of Neuroscience

Palmour, Nicole; Racine, Éric

doi:10.1080/21507740.2011.620592

Cited by 8 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 12 publications

(6 reference statements)

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“…The brain is emerging as a new site at which efforts to achieve self-control and self-improvement can operate. Much of the brain optimization discourse has coalesced around the topic of dementia, the promised aversion of which stands as the most compelling incentive for ‘brain-training’ ( Palmour and Racine, 2011 ; Williams et al, 2011 ). The fear dementia elicits can be largely traced to a perception that it dissolves personal identity, independence and self-determination ( Van Gorp and Vercruysse, 2012 ).…”

Section: Does Neuroscience Promote Conceptions Of Individual Fate As mentioning

confidence: 99%

How has neuroscience affected lay understandings of personhood? A review of the evidence

O’Connor

Joffe

2013

Public Underst Sci

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The prominence of neuroscience in the public sphere has escalated in recent years, provoking questions about how the public engages with neuroscientific ideas. Commentaries on neuroscience’s role in society often present it as having revolutionary implications, fundamentally overturning established beliefs about personhood. The purpose of this article is to collate and review the extant empirical evidence on the influence of neuroscience on commonsense understandings of personhood. The article evaluates the scope of neuroscience’s presence in public consciousness and examines the empirical evidence for three frequently encountered claims about neuroscience’s societal influence: that neuroscience fosters a conception of the self that is based in biology, that neuroscience promotes conceptions of individual fate as predetermined, and that neuroscience attenuates the stigma attached to particular social categories. It concludes that many neuroscientific ideas have assimilated in ways that perpetuate rather than challenge existing modes of understanding self, others and society.

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Section: Does Neuroscience Promote Conceptions Of Individual Fate As mentioning

confidence: 99%

How has neuroscience affected lay understandings of personhood? A review of the evidence

O’Connor

Joffe

2013

Public Underst Sci

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“…Neuroenhancement is seen as having the potential to cause self-alienation of consumers and “impede their identiﬁcation with new traits, rendering them nonautonomous” [ 80 ]. Neuroenhancements are linked to commercial interests as demonstrated by Direct to Consumer Advertising (DCTA) [ 171 ]; some see problems with DCTA [ 172 ] and others compare neuroenhancement with energy drinks stating that if they are proven safe they should be allowed as over the counter and the marketing should be allowed. As long as there is not enough data on safety and efficacy they should not be marketed as lifestyle products [ 78 ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emerging Therapeutic Enhancement Enabling Health Technologies and Their Discourses: What Is Discussed within the Health Domain?

et al. 2013

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So far, the very meaning of health and therefore, treatment and rehabilitation is benchmarked to the normal or species-typical body. We expect certain abilities in members of a species; we expect humans to walk but not to fly, but a bird we expect to fly. However, increasingly therapeutic interventions have the potential to give recipients beyond species-typical body related abilities (therapeutic enhancements, TE). We believe that the perfect storm of TE, the shift in ability expectations toward beyond species-typical body abilities, and the increasing desire of health consumers to shape the health system will increasingly influence various aspects of health care practice, policy, and scholarship. We employed qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate among others how human enhancement, neuro/cognitive enhancement, brain machine interfaces, and social robot discourses cover (a) healthcare, healthcare policy, and healthcare ethics, (b) disability and (c) health consumers and how visible various assessment fields are within Neuro/Cogno/Human enhancement and within the BMI and social robotics discourse. We found that health care, as such, is little discussed, as are health care policy and ethics; that the term consumers (but not health consumers) is used; that technology, impact and needs assessment is absent; and that the imagery of disabled people is primarily a medical one. We submit that now, at this early stage, is the time to gain a good understanding of what drives the push for the enhancement agenda and enhancement-enabling devices, and the dynamics around acceptance and diffusion of therapeutic enhancements.

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“…Although proponents argue it effectively introduces the public to innovations, empowers patients, and provides updated health information directly to potential users, Palmour and Racine view direct-toconsumer marketing of dietary supplements to maintain or enhance cognition as an unhealthy commerce of neuroscience. 49 The Internet and mass and targeted emails have facilitated marketing of all sorts of products that promise to prevent, slow and even reverse or cure AD that are targeted to anxious seniors. Here are a few excerpts from some of these sales pitches:…”

Section: Policy Issues In Commercialization and Marketing Of Ad Productsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Policy Issues In Commercialization and Marketing Of Ad Productsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alzheimer's Disease — Perspective from Political Science: Public Policy Issues

Blank

2018

J. Law. Med. Ethics

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Direct-to-Consumer Marketing of Dietary Supplements for Dementia: An Example of Unhealthy Commerce of Neuroscience

Cited by 8 publications

References 12 publications

How has neuroscience affected lay understandings of personhood? A review of the evidence

How has neuroscience affected lay understandings of personhood? A review of the evidence

Emerging Therapeutic Enhancement Enabling Health Technologies and Their Discourses: What Is Discussed within the Health Domain?

Alzheimer's Disease — Perspective from Political Science: Public Policy Issues

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