AMA to scrutinize usefulness of DTC drug ads

After years of debating if this form of promotion should be banned, the Association will study whether it can be recast to aid the patient-physician relationship.

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff. July 11, 2005.

Chicago -- Should a prescription medication be on the market for a period of time before its manufacturer advertises it directly to patients? Should a direct-to-consumer ad always include data comparing its drug to similar ones? Should print ads be allowed and broadcast ones be banned? Or should DTC drug ads be banned outright? And what about strengthening federal regulation?

These are all questions delegates wrestled with at last month's Annual Meeting of the American Medical Association. Banning DTC advertising has been debated many times before, but the focus this time appeared to be different -- one that considers how this medium could be harnessed to be more informative and less deleterious to patient care.

"The horse is out of the barn, but I think we can do something to affect how this is done," said Kathleen A. Weaver, MD, an internist and delegate from Lake Oswego, Ore. "The promise of direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising lies in its potential to educate consumers about medical conditions and the possibility of treatment, but this promise can only be fulfilled if consumers are given clear and accurate information."

Some physicians do see benefits. They say that DTC drug advertising helps to reduce the stigma associated with certain medical conditions and alerts consumers to treatments. These positives may be enough to counterbalance some of the less palatable effects.

"Nothing has ever brought in as many patients to my addiction clinic to stop smoking as the brief period of time in which [GlaxoSmithKline] advertised bupropion for that purpose," said Stuart Gitlow, MD, MPH, an addiction psychiatrist from Providence, R.I and a delegate of the American Society of Addiction Medicine. "Did it mean I always prescribed the drug? Of course not. I have the ability to tell whether a medication is necessary. That's my job."