[e-drug] Doctors prescribing heavily influenced by DTCA (7)

["Dr Peter R Mansfield" <peter.mansfield@adelaide.edu.au>]

E-DRUG: Doctors prescribing heavily influenced by DTCA (7)
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Jonathon,

When I have discussed DTCA with politicians one of the arguments they want
to test is: "We might as well let the companies do DTCA on TV etc because
people will be exposed to DTCA on the internet and we can't stop that."  

Here is my response.

DTCA on the WWW is a worse problem when it is linked to drug supply that
bypasses the partial safe guard of doctor's prescriptions. Drug company
websites sometimes refer people to lists of doctors who they know are likely
to prescribe the drug being promoted. 

However WWW DTCA is otherwise less of a problem because it is less effective
for two reasons.  

1. DTCA on TV and radio and in newspapers and magazines exposes a large
percentage of the population. WWW DTCA is rarely seen except by a minority
who seek it. The people who seek information on the WWW sometimes seek
information from multiple sources so they may get some other sides to the
story unlike with TV ads.  (Junk email is in an in between category but is
not used by drug companies as far as I know.)

2. The WWW is rarely able to hijack people into being exposed to a stream of
images that build to a strong emotional appeal in the way that is possible
with TV and to a less extent the other older media.

It may be possible to regulate DTCA on the internet. For example Drugs could
be licensed on the condition that there be no internet DTCA including access
blocks preventing people using internet service providers based in your
country from accessing internet DTCA in the USA.

regards,

Peter

Dr Peter R Mansfield
GP
Research Fellow, Department of General Practice, University of Adelaide
peter.mansfield@adelaide.edu.au
NHMRC Public Health Postgraduate Scholarship 250465
On study leave from Healthy Skepticism Inc during 2005 to write PhD thesis
www.healthyskepticism.org Countering misleading drug promotion.
34 Methodist St, Willunga SA 5172 Australia