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E-DRUG. Direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines.
I'm a GP and editor at Prescrire, the French independent drug
bulletin. I believe asking whether advertising is commensurate with
education sounds like counting how many angels can dance on the head
of a pin.
As a prescriber I spend a lot of time deconstructing misinformation
from advertorials in the lay press and resisting patient request for
hyped up and costly drugs (fluoxetine for instance, and soon the
'hard-on while you wait'). I decided not to receive company
representatives 10 years ago as they were unable to provide balanced
and comparative information on new drugs, and I'm afraid that would be
even worse with DTCA on TV
I've seen the following argument:" DTC advertising of prescription
medicines would 'empower' people and reluctant doctors are just
'paternalistic'. That's simple demagoguery.
Christophe Kopp
christophe.kopp@wanadoo.fr
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