The effect of television and print news stories on the nocebo responding following a generic medication switch

Abstract

Background Following a nationwide switch to a generic antidepressant, a series of negative media stories publicised the experiences of some patients having side effects following the switch. This occurred first in print media and five months later it occurred again in television news. In this study we examined the effect of television news stories compared to print stories on adverse drug reaction reporting. We also examined the change in reporting rate of specific side effects mentioned in the TV news bulletins. Method Using an interrupted time series analysis of data from a national adverse reactions database, we compared the number of adverse reaction reports after the print and television coverage and the changes in reporting rate of side effects mentioned and not mentioned in TV news stories. Results We found a significant increase in adverse reaction reports following TV news items that discussed patients’ reports of side effects following the medication switch (interruption effect = 73.25, p = .046). The reporting rate of symptoms mentioned in the TV news bulletins also increased, in particular suicidal thoughts (interruption effect = 23.60, p = .031). The effect of TV stories on adverse reaction reports was 211% greater than the print articles. Conclusions Television stories have a much stronger effect than print media on nocebo responding and specific symptoms mentioned in the bulletins have a direct influence on the type of side effects subsequently reported. Media guidelines should be developed to reduce the negative public health effects of media coverage following medication switches.

Media coverage of COVID-19 vaccination-associated cerebral venous sinus thrombosis was followed by a surge in emergency presentations due to headache – observations from a university hospital in Germany

“…To account for a potential confound of increased headache presentations by higher vaccination rates against COVID-19, weekly vaccination rates as monitored by the RKI were obtained from Github 14 for the city of Essen and the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), where Essen is located. We also screened data of ER reports during the time of "booster" vaccinations (= third vaccination against COVID-19), which was approximately 9 months after our main time range of interest.…”

“…nocebo effects (14). Third, surveys investigating social media consumption showed that the number of posts seen about COVID-19 side effects, and the severity of symptoms conveyed in the posts, were predictive of the severity of side effects experienced after vaccination, indicating a "dose-dependent" effect of media exposure (15,16).…”

“…We hypothesized that weekly rates of patients presenting with headache to our neurological ER increased after the population was exposed to this media announcement. Using public data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) 14 , the German institution for epidemiology and nationwide health monitoring, we related the ER data to local COVID-19 vaccination rates in order to account for confounds by the increased number of vaccinations over time. Furthermore, we assessed whether the increase in weekly headache presentations resulted in higher total rates of neurological ER presentations, thereby estimating the impact on the overall utilization of our neurological emergency care.…”

Health scares: Tracing their nature, growth and spread

“…Newspaper coverage of side effects was also found to be associated with an increase in adverse event reports from the HPV vaccination ( Faasse et al, 2017 ). Media coverage discussing side effects from a generic antidepressant was associated with an increase in adverse event reporting, with television increasing the reporting rate by more than 210% compared to print media ( MacKrill et al, 2019 ; MacKrill et al, 2020 ). Recently, the discussion of rare COVID-19 vaccine side effects in the media resulted in increased reporting of cardiac complaints, which were likely self-diagnosed ( MacKrill, 2023 ).…”

Impact of Television Depictions of Gout on Perceptions of Illness: A Randomized Controlled Trial

“…In one study, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 64% of respondents were regular watchers of television, and 67% of regular daytime drama viewers reported learning something new about a health issue or disease from a television show in the previous 6 months (19). Television is a preferred source of medical information for many members of the public (20,21), including some patients with gout (22), and compared to print media, television depictions can have a strong influence on patient-reported symptoms (23,24).…”