Every month, the postman leaves a stack of psychiatric journals and magazines for me. (I still don’t understand how these companies obtained my mailing address.) These publications are fondly referred to as “throw away journals” because, well, people throw them away—often without reading them.

I am one of those people. (I have also tried to get off of the mailing list, but my efforts have failed.)

These publications boast a ridiculous amount of advertising. The content within is also of limited utility—because you get what you pay for.

Let’s dissect the anatomy of the January 2007 issue of Psychiatric Times, in order, from page 1 through page 72:

• generic Lilly ad - 1 page
• Lunesta (Sepracor) - 4 pages
• generic Pfizer insert - 2
• board licensing preparation ad - 1
• ADHD education (Shire) - 2
• Lexapro insert (Forest) - 2
• generic Janssen ad - 1
• Adderall XR (Shire) - 3
• psychosis symposia announcement - 1
• Effexor XR (Wyeth) - 4
• ADHD prodrug development (Shire) - 2
• Abilify (Bristol-Myers Squibb) insert - 8
• Rozerem (Takeda) - 3
• Geodon (Pfizer) - 2
• Namenda (Forest) - 4
• Cymbalta (Lilly) - 2
• Seroquel (AstraZeneca) - 4
• electronic medical record ad - 1
• Zyprexa (Lilly) - 1
• physician staffing opportunities - 2
• classifieds - 11
• generic Janssen ad (back cover) - 1

Over half of this publication (37 pages, or 51.4%) is dedicated to advertising, the vast majority of which is for medications. That doesn’t even include the inserts (which resemble the perfume ads that jut out in popular magazines). Only 3 (or 4.2%) of those ads are unrelated to pharmaceutical companies.

In the lower left-hand corner of page 3 is a box of text:

Psychiatric Times serves as an impartial forum for information affecting mental health care professionals and their practices….

“Impartial”? Ha!

People who work in mental health would like to believe that they have the best understanding of human psychology and behavior, but, in truth, people in marketing and advertising likely know a lot more than we do.