Direct-to-Consumer Advertising of Pharmaceuticals: An Integrative Review - Innovation and Marketing in the Pharmaceutical Industry - page 626

Fig. 21.6 Conceptual map of how DTCA infl uences the process of patients seeking and receiving
treatment from physicians

21.3 Review of Past Research

21.3.1 Patients

It is useful to think about how DTCA infl uences patients in the process of seeking and
receiving treatment from physicians. Patients' response to DTCA involves several
decisions and behaviors (Fig. 21.6 provides a schematic view of various effects of
DTCA on how patients seek and receive treatment from physicians). First, a patient
needs to decide whether to make an appointment with a physician for diagnosis of a
condition, to initialize a treatment, or, in the case of a chronic condition, to continue
an existing treatment. During the physician interaction the patient needs to decide
whether to discuss the advertised drug with the physician or request the physician to
prescribe the drug. Subsequent to the physician visit, the patient needs to decide
whether to fi ll the prescription and comply with the drug regimen as prescribed.
We discuss each of these stages in turn.

21.3.1.1 Visits to Physicians

Using national aggregate data for the drug class statins for 1996-2000, Calfee et al.
( 2002 ) report the surprising result that DTCA does not have an effect on the number
of patient visits to physicians. For the same drug class, Liu and Gupta ( 2011 )
analyze DMA level DTCA expenditure data, and patient visits data at the same