A survey of the advertising of nine new drugs in the general practice literature.
OBJECTIVE
To undertake a survey of the advertising of new drugs in the general practice literature as part of a larger study investigating the factors which influence the introduction of new drugs into clinical practice.


METHODS
The advertisements for nine new drugs from a range of therapeutic groups were monitored for 30 months in 12 journals, which are received by most GPs. The amount of prescribing, in defined daily doses, of each new drug by 50 GPs, selected as regular users of a teaching hospital, was also recorded during this period.


RESULTS
Of the journals, 798 issues were surveyed (93% of the total published). The total number of advertisements was almost 33 000, of which 2163 (6.6%) were for the study drugs. The pattern of advertising of each study drug was very complex and varied from month to month and between journals. There was no consistent pattern in the way the drugs were advertised, with large variations in the amount and timing of advertisements. The prescribing data showed wide variations in the number of GPs prescribing each drug and in the amount prescribed.


CONCLUSIONS
There was no clear relationship between the extent of the advertising of a drug and the amount of prescribing by the GPs. This suggests that advertising in journals is only one of many factors which are important in influencing GPs to prescribe new drugs. However, the study may have been insufficiently comprehensive to capture complex relationships between advertising and prescribing.
Jones
M
M
Department of Primary Care and General Practice, University of Birmingham, UK. M.I.Jones@bham.ac.uk
Greenfield
S
S
Bradley
C
C
D000329:Advertising / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends; D004345:Drug Industry / Q000191:economics; D011307:Drug Prescriptions; D005194:Family Practice; D006801:Humans; D010506:Periodicals as Topic