Media ads for prescription drugs prompted 7.5 percent of people in a recent survey to ask their doctor about a prescription.

But the doctors only agreed about a third of the time.

They were more likely to go ahead and write a prescription when the person asking was over 65.  Almost half of seniors (46.4 percent) were given a prescription for a medicine that they saw advertised and asked their doctor about.

In the same survey, 6 out of 10 people said that ads for nutritional supplements weren’t trustworthy, but 12 percent bought the supplements based on the ads anyway. Read the rest of this entry »