It’s always so weird because it’s not like you can go to your primary doctor and say “I want X drug” right? Like, if there was a reason to give you a drug for something the doctor would have prescribed it. Also not ask you how you felt about them, just that here is X drug for your Y problem. If that doesn’t work we try Z.
Or do people actually swap doctors over and over for months until they get one who says “ok dude”?
You absolutely can, unless it’s Adderall. For some fucking reason you tell a doctor that you’ve been on Adderall for years and it works better for you than the alternatives you’ve been prescribed in the past and they treat you like a drug seeker instead of someone who’s been treating her adhd for over two decades
I don’t think I’ve ever “asked my doctor about ___” because of something I saw in a commercial.
I rejected my medical care provider’s (I think it was a nurse practitioner) advice because of what I saw in an ad, and it did not go well. They were incredibly offended that I had an opinion and dismissive of the idea that IUDs could lead to scarring, which I got from the ad itself. I didn’t end up with any birth control that day, but the next month, planned parenthood gave me the ring instead of a first generation copper IUD.
I would have definitely gotten a second opinion via some internet searching on anything I saw in a commercial long before I talked to a doctor about it.
The latter is called “doctor shopping” and it absolutely happens.
The goal of the advertisement is to have the patient be interested, not the doctor. Admittedly some doctors are not up to date on the latest obscure cutting edge treatments, so there is some possible benefit. However, most doctors are capable of performing cost benefit analyses and understanding side effects, but when a patient comes in asking for a medication, it definitely tips the scales towards the medication.
Well, also there are medical sales people / pharma sales reps, usually attractive women, that go to doctors offices, take them out to lunch, and give them a ton of shit like free samples and golf clubs and whatnot. Have the product name recognition out there from the commercial helps with all this.
