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# Psych Drug Ads Promote Prescribing: Study
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/psych-drug-ads-promote-prescribing-study/
- Published: 2016-09-15T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T21:32:00.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: FDA Policy/General, #legacy-id-D5136822

Brown University researchers say that while little has been learned over the years about the effect of direct-to-consumer advertising on psychiatric conditions, it appears that the ads succeed in driving prescribing with potentially mixed effects on patient care. [Writing](http://www.psychiatrist.com.sci-hub.cc/JCP/article/Pages/2016/aheadofprint/15r10325.aspx?ref=fdaweb.com) in the *Journal of Clinical Psychiatry*, the researchers say they could only find four studies that met their criteria for analysis — studies that included advertised psychiatric medicines, tracked prescribing behavior based on patient requests for the drugs, and documented specific doctor-patient interaction at the point of care.

While the studies suggested that most patient requests for drugs are granted, the three studies that involved observations of real patients found that requests for medications were not a major part of the discussions. Requests for advertised drugs occurred less than 10% of the time, the study report says.

“The most important conclusion from our study is that more research is needed,” says lead researcher **Sara Becker**. “It’s possible that direct-to-consumer advertising might help some people and might lead to overprescribing in others.”