CU Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences associate professor, Dr. Sunny Linnebur, recently spoke to MedPage Today on the topic of direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising. The story highlights recent news that the American Medical Association’s House of Delegates voted Nov. 17 that DTC advertising "should be banned in order to reduce the demand for expensive, unnecessary drug treatments," MedPage Today reports.
Banning DTC advertising would be a really good idea, said Sunny Linnebur, PharmD, associate professor of clinical pharmacy at the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy, in Aurora. “I can see the potential risks that occur when patients watch commercials and immediately think they need to be on that medication,” she said in a phone interview.
“Number one, it puts pressure on providers — doctors, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants — to prescribe those medications. Number two, patients are not always in the best place to make decisions about which medications they should and should not take, and commercials are targeting patients and can make them think that medicine is for them, when it’s not safe for them.”
In addition, such ads can increase providers’ workloads because “we [may] have to discuss medications that were never going to be on the table to begin with,” said Linnebur.Get the full story on MedPage Today.
