[QUOTE=La lamy;2053619]I find TV ads about prescription drugs quite disturbing. The crazy long list of side effects included in these ads are such a turn off while watching TV. In Canada, direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs is prohibited as a health protection measure. Manufacturers cannot advertise prescription-only drugs directly to the public because of their toxicity and the potential for harm from medically unnecessary or inappropriate use.
For me, I assume my doctor is the professional who will know what meds are appropriate for me. So my question to you is:
has anyone ever gone to their doctor and tell them they want a certain drug they saw on TV?[/QUOTE]
I should preface my answer with
Ever since the first direct to consumer ads in 1983-84 for Rufen and Trental, patients have come to doctor's offices with specific requests for specific drugs that they know nothing about other than they saw an ad. The internet magnified this problem 100 fold, the patients would come to the office with some blurb they googled from God knows what site and try to convince me to prescribe that med for whatever condition they thought they had. The best part was when they wanted to argue with me---actually, sort of like some posters on TOTV who worship Dr. Google.