I was getting out of the shower and heard a drug commercial...

[TreasonousBastard]

didn't catch the name, but what I did catch was, along with the usual long list of warnings, was: "this is only for patients who have been hospitalized with a heart attack".

Huh?

What could possibly be the point of advertising such a thing to people who presumably already have a cardiology team watching over them? Are they really encouraging heart patients to think their doctors overlooked this particular pill?

[woodsprite]

1. Sure, they just add the tagline "Ask your doctor about ____." nt

[TreasonousBastard]

2. And I hear a lot of doctors are pissed about having patients insist upon...

totally inappropriate medications they saw on TV.

[Aristus]

3. And Physician Assistants.

I get it all the time. Patients insisting on a certain prescription rather than allowing my training and clinical judgement to decide.

[TreasonousBastard]

7. As you well know, deciding on a medication is not always a simple either-or...

and patients often just don't understand.

A lot of countries don't allow such advertising.

[dalton99a]

8. +1. The U.S. and New Zealand are the only countries that allow direct-to-consumer drug advertising

that includes product claims.

(Canada allows ads that mention either the product or the indication, but not both)

[dalton99a]

4. "Side effects may include heart attacks, ..."

[llmart]

5. They need to ban pharmaceutical ads like they did cigarettes.

[Kablooie]

6. That's why public ads used to be illegal.

They should be made illegal again.

[Journeyman]

9. I was prescribed a certain medication that had a lot of side effects . . .

About two weeks into the regimen, I wrote the doctor with questions about these side effects, along with a casual query about why she chose this drug over another which I'd read about on the internet. I prefaced all this by owning up to my ignorance, and deferring to her obvious greater knowledge. I just wanted to know how to deal with the side effects, why I had not been hospitalized when first put on the drug (as the drug's manufacturer suggested on its website), and what made one drug better than another in my case.

She came back in a real huff, tweaked that I had questioned her wisdom. Despite this, she offered to change me over to the other drug if that was what I wanted. I didn't. I just wanted answers. But it showed me doctors could be persuaded to change a prescription by even a casual question.

Two weeks later, this doctor took maternity leave and my case was reassigned to another. The new doctor took the time to explain why the one drug was better than the other (the second could kill me if additional tests found I wasn't a suitable candidate), and put my mind at ease about the side effects. Needless to say, I switched to this new doctor as my primary and I've been very happy with her ever since.

So no, the pharmaceutical companies don't believe doctors overlook their product. They just know human nature, and are banking on doctors' fears that patients will leave for another clinician if they don't give in to their demands, no matter how innocent or ill-informed.

[TreasonousBastard]

10. Doctors are not perfect, and they often don't keep up with the latest news...

And there's a lot of latest news to keep up with. And, there's always the possibility that you asked the doctor when her car was trashed by a hit and run that morning.

They have been known to be "influenced" by drug marketers themselves. And never forget that all of their patients are not necessarily so easy to explain things to.

But, yeah, if the doctor gets sniffy about reasonable questions, that's a good reason to look for a change.

[MyOwnPeace]

11. I've often wanted

to start a list of "Ask your doctor about:" ads. I'd probably use all of my appointment time just reading through the list!