Marketing campaigns in the lay media that encourage patients to seek care may increase the workload of general practitioners and lead to prescriptions for conditions that do not necessarily require medical attention. In a retrospective cohort study of the Dutch general practice research database, 't Jong and colleagues (p 931) report that the consultation rate for new onychomycosis increased by 54% and the prescription rate of terbinafine increased by 58% in the months after the launch of a lay media marketing campaign by the manufacturer of the drug. If several lay marketing campaigns ran at the same time, they say, the impact could affect patients who need care for more serious problems.
Figure 1.
Credit: HULTON/GETTY IMAGES