Promotion of prescription drugs to consumers: case study results

Identify key factors related to patients. medication adherence and health outcomes after they received a prescription that they requested based on a prescription drug advertisement.

During January 2002, 6 individuals who requested advertised prescription medications and received a prescription from their physician were interviewed. Qualitative analysis was employed to allow for preservation of individual findings and variances in effects for each subject.

In all, the 6 patients received 10 prescriptions. For 8 of the 10 requests (80%), the patients were given a prescription for the specific products requested. Of the 10 prescriptions granted to the patients, only one (10%) of the medications was discontinued by the patient due to lack of efficacy. In addition, one patient discontinued one of the products because it was withdrawn from the market. The results showed that individuals (a) may be willing to.just try. new therapies to see if they work better than their existing therapies, (b) appear to make decisions about the usefulness or value of the drug product after a short-term trial, (c) compare the value of the product with the out-of-pocket cost of the product after a short trial, (d) value and seek the advice of their physician about information they see in advertisements, (e) become extremely pleased when they find that the new product actually helps them, and (f) may develop favorable views about advertised prescription drug products, in general, if they had a favorable experience with the first product they requested. Some patients experienced disappointment, side effects, new challenges about how to fit the newly prescribed therapy into their lifestyle and existing drug regimen, the need for follow-up appointments with their physician, and the unwelcome challenge of how to pay for their newly prescribed therapy.

Each study subject had unique experiences and outcomes after asking his or her physician for an advertised prescription drug product. Both positive and negative experiences were noted. Asking for an advertised drug appears to be viewed by patients as an opportunity for a short-term trial of a new therapy. Such short-term trials could introduce the need for follow-up physician visits and may result in higher drug expenditures for patients.