Healthy Skepticism Library item: 20182

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Prescription advertising has benefits say health professionals
Massey University News 2003 Feb 18
http://www.massey.ac.nz/~wwpubafs/2003/press_releases/18_02_03b.html

Full text:

Medical professionals, on the whole, are finding that media advertising of prescription drugs has benefits, according to a survey of doctors, pharmacists and practice nurses.

The study of health professionals’ attitudes to advertising of drugs such as Xenical, Celebrex and Viagra was conducted by Dr Lynne Eagle and Professor Kerry Chamberlain.

“One group of doctors is violently opposed philosophically to DTC advertising, another group is ambivalent and a third group think it is positive,” Dr Eagle says. “It is a myth that doctors feel pressured by patients armed with printouts from the Internet and demands for the latest drug shown on TV.”

Dr Eagle says doctors with positive attitudes to DTC advertising tended to be younger and female which probably reflects a change in doctor patient relationships. “It has been noted that patients as consumers are seeking to move away from the traditional relationship where ‘doctor knows best’ and patients have no input into treatment decisions, to become informed on treatment options and involved in decision making.”

About a quarter of all Internet traffic is to do with health care information which has overtaken pornography as the most popular net sector. Dr Eagle says while there is clearly a difference between a consumer being exposed to advertising in mainstream media and seeking information on the Net, a ban on DTC advertising would be unworkable because it is almost impossible to ban access to information on the Internet.

For the Albany survey, doctors, practice nurses and pharmacists completed an extensive questionnaire on such topics as the number of patients requesting advertised medications, the degree of pressure to provide requested medication, and attitudes and responses to requests.

Doctors found advertised medications often stimulated patients to bring up a concern that might otherwise not be discussed, leading to the diagnosis of underlying factors.

“A patient asking about Viagra might give the GP a chance to discuss the causes of erectile dysfunction, which often has a medical basis, and detect previously undiagnosed problems,’ Dr Eagle said.

“Patients also found the advertising was a prompt to take medication regularly and would go on the Internet after their condition had been diagnosed to become better informed.”

The Albany team will publish the results of a consumer survey on DTC next month. Preliminary findings indicate similar ambivalence to that shown by medical professionals, but overall positive effects more than balance any negatives.

“There is no evidence from either study indicating DTC advertising should be curtailed,” Dr Eagle said.

Dr Lynne Eagle is a senior lecturer in marketing in the College of Business and Associate Professor Chamberlain is head of the Psychology section at Albany.