[Jstall]

The whole "ask your doctor about" line in pharmaceutical commercials has always struck me as odd. Shouldn't a physician already be aware of drugs that can help treat an ailment? How does that conversation go?

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Physician: Well shit Bob I'm out of ideas. I have no idea how to treat your condition.
Bob: Hmmm what about Drug X?
Physician: Drug X! Of course that would be an effective treatment. I tell you since I got my DVR and started fast forwarding through commercials I'm missing all kinds of useful information.

[Craig328]

The "ask your doctor about" trend is the pharmaceutical companies attempt to do an end around your physician and get the patient to bug the doc about medication. Normally they would only use a drug rep to visit the doc, extol the virtues of their latest drug, take them to lunch/golf/strip club, leave them some samples and hope the doc ends up writing scripts for that medication. One day someone figured "hey, if we can enlist the patient in this effort, it'll be totally more effective"...so they did.

It's insipid and is nothing about more than making money.

[Jstall]

It would still require the doctor to actually write the script. I can't see a physician caving to pressure from patients. They aren't(or at least I hope they wouldn't) going to prescribe medication to a patient just because they asked about it. I understand why the pharmaceutical companies would try this strategy but I can't see it actually working.

[Craig328]

It does though. First off, you have the conditions that aren't life threatening or that even make you "sick" (hair loss, toe fungus, short eyelashes, erectile dysfunction) where the patient makes an appointment to ask the doctor to specifically address these issues and they do so because they saw the "36 Hour Cialias" commercial and they "want to be ready when the mood hits". Unless the doc has no reason to NOT write the script, there's probably little harm in doing so so they write it. The patient is happy, the doctor is doing something that makes the patient happy...everybody wins.

Then you have products that ARE something the doc might initiate the script for (maybe something like cholesterol control) and as they're discussing the medicinal options the patient pipes up and says "hey, what about that Plavix stuff I've seen on TV" and this might prompt the doc to say "well, yeah, that is one option" and so again, unless there isn't a medical reason to not try the product, the doc may be more inclined to write the script because the patient mentioned it.

One of my wife's friends was a pharmaceutical rep up til a couple of years ago and this is pretty much the explanation she gave me when I asked "why on earth would they make a commercial for a product that women aren't supposed to even handle?" (was about one of the hair restoration drugs, I believe).

[jon.kiparsky]

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The whole "ask your doctor about" line in pharmaceutical commercials has always struck me as odd. Shouldn't a physician already be aware of drugs that can help treat an ailment? How does that conversation go?

Simple psychology. If you ask "should I use drug X?", and the answer is "no", then the obvious response is to ask why not. Now the plan is that you have warm fuzzy feelings about the drug from watching the commercial, or if you're full of angst about the condition from watching the commercial, so you start echoing what you remember of the selling points, and the doctor has to respond. Now you're in a position where either the doctor agrees with the commercial (and adds his authority to it) or he disagrees with it and you continue to repeat the selling points (and basically sell yourself on the drug). Either way, the conversation is an advantageous one for the drug maker.

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It would still require the doctor to actually write the script

Just out of curiosity, when did we start saying "script" instead of "prescription"? I know it happened at some point, but I don't know when. It's a weird one, it's not an abbreviation that anyone would come to unless they were saying the word "prescription" an awful lot, and that's not something that happens in my circle of friends. Not a very critical issue, of course, but reading your post made me wonder.
Seeing it in print is really funny - makes me think going to the doctor has become a sort of writers' workshop.

[Jstall]

Hmm yes, I can see both your points, it is a no lose situation for pharmaceutical companies to use that marketing strategy.

As far as calling a prescription a script, I've heard people use the term for years. I don't remember exactly when I started hearing it. I use it myself sometimes as was reflected in that post .

[jon.kiparsky]

Yeah, not much of big deal, but I'm always curious when I notice stuff like that. Language changes when you're not looking, and it's always a little weird how it decides to change. I'd have expected "scrip" as the short form, not "script", if you needed to abbreviate "prescription". Well, go figure.