[Source: Health and Life Sciences Law Daily, August 14, 2007]
In the Wall Street Journal (8/13) Health Blog, Jacob Goldstein reported, "Those ads for prescription medicines may be doing some unexpected good. A recent study suggests some direct-to-consumer drug ads may spur people to change their health behavior for the better, even if they never buy what the drug companies are selling." Goldstein continued, "While health-boosting side effects may help consumers, we can't figure out whether this is good news for the drug industry." In a study to be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Political Economy, Alan Mathios of Cornell University "found that people who read more magazine ads for nicotine gums and patches (sold to help smokers quit) were more likely to actually quit than people who read fewer of the ads." This finding "held true whether or not the people bought the advertised products."
