Some studies have asserted that direct-to-consumer advertising misleads patients into demanding heavily-advertised drugs, leading to superfluous or sub-optimal treatment. Doctors may feel pressured to prescribe specific brand-name medications because they were mentioned by a patient.Metzl, Jonathan. “Selling Sanity Through Gender.” Ms Magazine, Fall, 2003. In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 47% of all antibiotics prescribed in the United States were unnecessary. Another study of young people living in West Palm Beach, Florida found that a 10% increase in advertising expose increased the total number of prescriptions by 5%; a higher percentage change than in Denver, Colorado – where DTCA expenditures per person are lower.
