Television advertising of high cholesterol drugs can lead to diagnoses of the disorder even where it is almost non-existent and to overtreatment with statins. This is the warning that comes from a new study by Jeff Niederdeppe of Cornell University, which points out: when you go to the doctor to ask for information on the promotional spots for statins, allowed overseas but not in Europe, the visit almost always ends with a prescription. The work appears online in the 'Journal of General Internal Medicine'.
They enrolled 106,685 American adults potentially exposed to television promotions between 2001 and 2007. The analysis suggests that people who watched the commercials were also 16 to 20% more likely to have received a diagnosis of high cholesterol, and from 16 to 22% more than being on statin drugs.
It is interesting to note that almost exclusively men and women at low risk of future cardiac events contributed to the increase in the chance of being diagnosed with hypercholesterolemia and using drugs.
Conversely, those at high risk of heart disease exposed to the TV commercials were no more likely to take a statin.
Barbara Di Chiara – March 11, 2013 – PharmaKronos
