A Consumer Reports survey of 39-thousand patients and of 335 primary care doctors shows the influence of drug ads on the patient-physician encounter. The survey found that 78 percent of doctors said patients asked them at least occasionally to prescribe drugs they had seen advertised on television, and 67 percent said they sometimes did so.
On the flip side, patients said that almost one-third of the doctors failed to discuss side effects of prescribed drugs, and two-thirds never brought up costs of treatments and tests, patients said.
Consumer Reports advises readers: "Ignore drug ads. There’s another party in the examination room with you and your doctor: the pharmaceutical industry, which spends billions of dollars a year trying to get you to pester your doctor for expensive new brand-name drugs--and wining and dining doctors so that they’ll prescribe them.
Almost all the doctors we surveyed said they make at least some time to meet with pharmaceutical company representatives who arrive bearing free samples, gifts, and sales pitches for their drugs.
Twenty-two percent of physicians we surveyed said they field “I saw it on TV” requests quite often in a typical week. Patients most frequently ask about drugs for acid reflux, impotence, allergies, and insomnia--mainstays of the television ad lineups. Very few of the patients we surveyed--7 percent--admitted to asking for advertised drugs for their most bothersome health condition over the previous 12 months. Such requests were most likely from patients with insomnia or impotence. Forty-nine percent of patients who asked for a specific drug left the doctor’s office with the prescription they requested.
If you’re tempted to ask for a drug you saw advertised, don’t be offended if your doctor declines to prescribe it, as 54 percent of our surveyed physicians said they sometimes did. (Forty percent of doctors also said that advertising directly to consumers did not serve the public interest.)
Older drugs can be just as effective, have a longer safety record, and often cost less. The new drug might not be on your health plan’s list of approved medications; 60 percent of the doctors we surveyed complained about such restrictions.
Thirty-one percent of respondents who got prescriptions said their doctor didn’t adequately explain possible side effects, so be sure to ask about them. And 9 percent said their doctor didn’t review their other prescriptions to check for potentially harmful interactions with the new drug."
Posted by schwitz at January 15, 2007 08:59 AM | TrackBack