Effects of patient medication requests on physician prescribing behavior: results of a factorial experiment.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Because of internet searches, advice from friends, and pharmaceutical advertising, especially direct-to-consumer advertising, patients are increasingly activated to request medications during a physician encounter.

Objectives

To estimate the effect of patient requests for medications on physician-prescribing behavior, unconfounded by patient, physician, and practice-setting factors.

Research design

Two experiments were conducted among 192 primary care physicians, each using different video-based scenarios: an undiagnosed "patient" with symptoms strongly suggesting sciatica, and a "patient" with already diagnosed chronic knee osteoarthritis. Half of patients with sciatica symptoms requested oxycodone, whereas the other half requested something to help with p

SUBMITTER: McKinlay JB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4151257 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature