On the recordMay 7, 2007
The GAO did this study which found that 86 percent of physicians responded that patients came in to ask about a specific drug--the purple pill, the green pill. You might say: Why are the doctors doing it? One doctor said to me: You are right. They shouldn't be advertising this. Patients coming in would be just as well served by taking an aspirin or something like that, very cheap and readily available, and I tell them that. The doctor is telling me this. I tell them that, and they say, no, no, they saw this ad. They want this. I tell them no, but they say: Well, Doctor, if it is all the same with you, I would just as soon have that pill. So he says: Well, if you want it, I will prescribe it. So there is an undue amount of pressure being put on doctors right now to prescribe these drugs because patients are demanding it.
Source
govinfo.gov
