Editor—Gottlieb reports a study finding that consumer advertising influences doctors' prescribing.1 Recently I have had several patients attend as a result of being frightened by advertisements in the popular press. They had seen and responded to an advertisement asking if their family was infected with fungus. They had sent away for the offered literature and then attended my surgery asking for an antifungal drug by name.
Diagnosis of tinea nail infections was confirmed, and the patients wished to be treated with the stated drug despite the risk profile, expense to the NHS, and the harmlessness of the condition. Is this freedom of information and patient autonomy or scaremongering and commercial opportunism?
Competing interests: None declared.
References
- 1.Gottlieb S. Consumer advertising influences doctors' prescribing, study finds. BMJ 2005;330: 983. (30 April.)15860809 [Google Scholar]