Link the consumption of lorazepam in the series 'The White Lotus' with an increase in Google searches for this anti-anxiety drug

The study has a design that is appropriate for its research question. Comparing the evolution of interest in lorazepam with two other anxiolytics [alprazolam and clonazepam] lends methodological validity to the study, as it can more strongly argue that The White Lotus had an effect only on Google searches related to lorazepam and not to other drugs, thereby reinforcing its hypothesis.

Understanding the causes of this phenomenon (and, therefore, how it fits with existing evidence) requires contextualising the empirical findings within several concepts or perspectives:

• The medicalisation of everyday life, which is defined as the process by which a social problem (in this case, an inability to form social relationships or insomnia) is defined using medical terminology (anxiety, depression, ADHD), its origin is interpreted from a biomedical framework (social causes are not addressed, but rather individual vulnerability) or it is treated with a medical intervention (prescription of anxiolytics or antidepressants) (Conrad, 2007).
• The gender perspective helps us understand that medicalisation processes are especially frequent or intense in women because their everyday suffering (what has Victoria's life been like as a woman in the US? What gender inequalities has she had to face?) tends to be defined in psychiatric terms (and therefore pharmacologised) more frequently in women.

In Spain, such a change would probably not be seen, because access to the public health system will likely make it easier for many questions related to health issues or drug prescriptions to be addressed in a primary care medical consultation, meaning that the need to resolve questions online will be much less frequent. The fundamentally private system in the US will encourage the use of other means, with consequences that will probably lead to more self-diagnosis and non-prescribed consumption.

It is complex to tackle this issue, because the psychotherapeuticisation of life is generating a new cultural framework on many levels, not only in the audiovisual industry. In any case, given the immediate effect that the normalisation and romanticisation of consumption in the media can have on the lifestyle habits of the population, regulations should be established that, as has happened in other areas of public health (images of tobacco users, alcohol advertising, etc.), can discourage the consumption of psychotropic drugs.

The study is small but carefully conducted and published in the journal JAMA of Health Forum, part of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) group, one of the most prestigious and respected medical journals in the world. Its findings highlight an interesting phenomenon: how a popular series can influence public interest in a drug. Following the premiere of The White Lotus, internet searches for the anti-anxiety drug lorazepam increased by almost 100%, suggesting that fiction not only reflects reality, but can also shape it.

Although searching for information on Google does not necessarily mean that people are taking the drug, it does reflect a growing curiosity about psychotropic drugs and demonstrates the power of the media to spark interest in their use.

In countries such as Spain, this issue is particularly sensitive. According to the latest data from the EDADES 2024 survey, one in eight adults has taken hypnotics in the last year, and consumption among young people aged 15 to 24 has doubled in the last decade, in many cases without a prescription. In this context, audiovisual representations matter: if series show the use of anxiolytics lightly, they can contribute to normalising it. Just as scenes involving tobacco were limited to avoid its “glamorisation”, perhaps the time has come to accompany this type of content with messages or warnings that help to contextualise the risks and promote more responsible consumption.

The Internet facilitates access to valuable health-related content, including various resources on disease prevention and treatment, advice on diet and physical activity, and advertising for health products and services. It is also possible to find false information and content on the Internet that promotes harmful behaviours and may lead to the development of eating disorders or facilitate suicidal behaviour.

Some researchers have successfully used Google Trends and other tools that provide data on the evolution of queries to Google and other search engines to examine seasonal trends in different diseases. In the study just published in JAMA Health Forum, the authors found evidence that the broadcast of a television series featuring a character who used a benzodiazepine-type hypnotic drug was associated with changes in online searches for information about access to that substance.

The results of this study are undoubtedly interesting, although they do not reveal whether the increase in internet searches, apparently related to exposure to the content of a successful television series, was also associated with changes in the use of the drug under investigation or with other health consequences. Studies of this type are part of what has come to be known as “infodemiology”, which includes research into content published on the internet with the aim of improving public health, and have the advantage of providing rapid access to behavioural data that would be difficult and costly to obtain by other methods.

This is a rigorous and methodologically sound study, as well as being scientifically serious and published in a high-impact journal. It also offers an original perspective. The study covers internet searches from 2022 to 2025, and there is a clear peak following the release of a hit series in which one of the main characters uses lorazepam in a way that is not at all unfamiliar to the reality we have in Spain.

Lorazepam is a benzodiazepine, an anxiolytic, and sadly, our country leads the way in prescribing this type of drug. I believe this sends a warning message to prescribers, who are both psychiatrists and primary care physicians, as we may be too quick to try to alleviate this anxiety, which is also something that the community demands. The difficulty in tolerating anxiety and stress in the West is high, and in our environment, these types of drugs are often prescribed. It should be added that these are substances with addictive potential, as they generate tolerance (to obtain the same result, you have to progressively increase the dose) and dependence, since their withdrawal can cause withdrawal symptoms.

The profile of users of this drug is usually middle-aged, coinciding with the protagonist of the series who consumes it, and who also takes it with alcohol, which makes it even more harmful due to the combined consumption of these substances, both of which are central nervous system depressants, and with a greater potential to cause problems in the long term. As a psychiatrist, I am not surprised that this user profile, which is very common in our society, has been chosen.

The study demonstrates the impact and influence that the media can have, especially these series, where certain characters can serve as role models with whom viewers can identify or onto whom they can project similar symptoms that lead them to seek information. That is what the paper points out; it is nothing else, it is not an increase in actual use.