'Ads aren't prescriptions for meds': McGill researcher

Martin Dawes speaks about the pitfalls of ads, pharmaceuticals and doctors

An interesting change has come to the medical practice: patients often arrive at their doctor's office with a self-diagnosis. Because of heightened advertising of pharmaceuticals, patients often mistakenly believe all they need is an MD's rubber stamp to obtain prescriptions they've been told will heal them.

Prescription medicines and their advertising are about to be reviewed by Martin Dawes, chair of McGill's Department of Family Medicine. He's giving the Dr. Hirsh Rosenfeld Annual Lecture on the topic "Being an Informed Consumer of Medication: How Your Family Physician Can Help."

• When: 7 pm, Wednesday, April 20
• Where: Jonathan C. Meakins Auditorium
  McIntyre Medical Building, 5th floor, 3655 Promenade Sir William Osler
• Information: For more info call 398-7375 ext. 0466

Too often, Dawes says, increased information about treatments has strained relations between patients and physicians. When a patient approaches their doctor asking for a specific prescription and is turned down, both parties are left feeling alienated, which has prompted 15 percent of patients to consider switching doctors. "Advertising has become like a third person in the consultation room, which irritates doctors and patients alike," says Dawes.

The solution, Dawes says, is for pharmaceutical companies to provide accessible and understandable information to patients. "You wouldn't buy a car without knowing the cost, the safety record and fuel consumption," says Dawes. "Yet some patients would accept treatments without knowing the facts."