Direct-to-consumer print ads for drugs: do they undermine the physician-patient relationship?

Background: Critics of direct-to-consumer print advertising for drugs (DTCA) contend it alters physician-patient communication by promoting greater patient participation and control. We assessed the nature of messages in print DTCA to identify potential guidelines they may provide to consumers for communicating with physicians.

Methods: We analyzed all unique advertisements (ie, excluded ads repeated across issues or magazines) in 18 popular magazines (684 issues) from January 1998 to December 1999 (n=225).