A new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine shows that direct to consumer advertising was initially linked to more physician visits and that physician promotion was linked to more prescriptions. The findings will be presented on Sunday May 31st at Digestive Disease Week in Chicago, Illinois.The study involved the drug tegaserod (Zelnorm), a drug for chronic constipation and irritable bowel syndrome that was intensely marketed to physicians as well as the public from 2002 to 2007 ($122 million in direct to consumer ads and $127 million in physician promotion in 2005 alone).

“We found that in the three months immediately following the start of the tegaserod advertising campaign there were 1 million more physician visits for constipation and IBS like symptoms and 400,000 more IBS diagnoses. However, over time this trend reversed and eventually the number of visits and diagnoses returned to baseline,” notes lead author Spencer D. Dorn, MD, MPH.

Digestive Disease Week – May 29, 2009

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