Does media reporting influence prescribing patterns?

In the weeks after the New York Times ran a news feature about oral minoxidil, the number of adults prescribed the drug leapt upwards. According to a study in JAMA Network Open which compared prescribing rates before and after publication of the story, prescriptions for the drug surged then later dropped off. The newspaper’s “article did not report new research findings or large-scale randomized evidence,” the study read. But it did describe anecdotal successful treatment experiences of several dermatologists “and results of a small observational study of women with hair loss who received low-dose oral rather than topical minoxidil.” To do the study, researchers accessed data from the Truveta database which contains electronic health records from member U.S. healthcare systems. Patients included lived in 13 states, and received first-time oral minoxidil either before (January to July 2022) or after (August to December 2022) publication of the article. There were 6,541 patients found who had first-time oral minoxidil prescriptions. Of these, 41.0% were male and 36.8% were aged 45 to 64 years. A total of 2,846 received prescriptions in the seven months prior to the newspaper’s publication of the story, and 3,695 individuals in the five months after publication. “The weekly rate of first-time minoxidil prescriptions per 10,000 outpatient encounters was significantly higher eight weeks after versus eight weeks before article publication overall,” the study said. The proportion of males and white individuals was higher after publication than before (43.6% versus 37.7% respectively). Also, there were fewer people with comorbidities after publication than there were before publication. This included: diabetes: 16.0% versus 22.1% after; chronic kidney disease: 14.4% versus 22.3%; and hypertension, 38.3% compared to 46.7%. After an initial surge after the article appeared, prescription rates dropped back down. The authors noted they did not observe similar increases in first-time prescriptions for two comparator drugs, finasteride or hypertension medications. “Our findings suggest that media coverage alone, even without new research or with limited evidence, may be associated with immediate changes in prescribing, although they may not be sustained.” The study did not examine whether the newspaper’s story led to patients asking for the drug or whether it influenced prescribers directly.

Does media reporting influence prescribing patterns?

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