Yay.....advertising!

From The Nevada Journal:

It turns out most patients are deluded about their own behavior, said Nancy Metcalf, a senior project editor at Consumer Reports.

The Yonkers-based magazine conducted a national survey of 39,090 patients and 335 doctors for last month's issue - and found a big gap between what two camps believe.

"Patients think they mostly or completely follow their treatment, but 59 percent of doctors say that's their No. 1 complaint about patients," Metcalf said.

It depends on how you define "follow." Patients told to walk regularly think they are following orders if they hit the trail once or twice a week when the doctor had four times in mind.

What's worse, Metcalf said, is 75 percent of patients don't take their medicine as prescribed.

Dr. Deborah Shapiro, an internist at Rockland Pulmonary and Medical Associates in West Nyack, said patients who don't take their medications are just the beginning.

"My biggest problem is probably patients who, one, don't take their medicine, and two, who come in demanding special care based on what they saw on TV, what they read or what their friends told them," Shapiro said. Turning to the Internet for medical information was a gripe of 41 percent of doctors in the Consumer Reports survey.

Although three out of four doctors complained about patients asking for drugs they saw advertised on TV, 67 percent said they sometimes cave in and write out the prescriptions.

In the Consumer Reports survey, 28 percent of doctors criticized patients for requesting drugs that are flat-out unnecessary.

How many people have "ooh"ed and "aah"ed over the sight of the adventurous mountain climbers -- only to realize Valtrex is a herpes medication? The desirability of HIV medication ads is already the stuff of stand-up comedians. But 2 out of 3 doctors are writing the prescriptions! (And we knows what happens when a person takes unnecessary medication. All sorts of horrible things.)

Pharmaceutical marketing reform NOW.