A new study suggests the more drugs are advertised by pharmaceutical companies, the more the drugs are requested by patients.

The study is published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

It says doctors are complying with their patients' wishes even if the drug would not normally be their first choice.




Rhonda Sheppard said she saw an ad for asthma medication and asked for it from her doctor.

"It said very clearly that it was for asthmatics and if asthmatics got into this stuff it would really change their lives," said Sheppard. Her doctor gave it to her.

Barbara Mintzies, the author of the study, says drug ads push patients to demand medication.

"If they were getting their information from advertising, they certainly weren't getting the kind of information they needed to make that kind of choice," said Mintzies.

Drug companies aren't supposed to market their products directly to consumers in Canada. It's a different story in the U.S. and many American drug ads are broadcast across the border to Canadian patients.

Doctors say they feel as if they're being put on the spot when patients ask for a certain medication.

"If you stand your ground and say that it's not appropriate for you, they are often very upset and they can be very persuasive," said Dr. Mohamed Rajani of Toronto. "I can see patients persuading their doctors to write a prescription that they ordinarily wouldn't have."

Mintzies' study discovered more than 70 per cent of doctors prescribed exactly what the patient asked for.

In half of those cases, doctors said they would not have prescribed the drug had the patient not demanded it.

"The most important thing to me is, are the right patients getting the information," said Durhane Wong-Rieger, who heads a lobby group pushing for direct-to-consumer advertising in Canada. The group is backed by the pharmaceutical industry.

"If the doctors are being influenced, then they are being influenced in a way that's appropriate for the patient."

In the U.S. drug marketing is coming under increasing scrutiny. The Food and Drug Administration wants to see ads with less hype and more health information in simpler language.

Health Canada will discuss those same issues this fall when it begins public consultations on whether to permit such ads in this country.