Survey: Lawyer ads weigh negatively on some patients

INDIANAPOLIS – Eli Lilly and Co., which has faced thousands of lawsuits over its anti-psychotic Zyprexa, is taking the fight for its top seller to attorneys, whose ads, the company says, have prompted some patients to discontinue mental illness medications when they shouldn’t.\nA survey released Wednesday found that the advertising blitz “presents yet another barrier for patients who suffer from severe mental illness” and increases the risks that people will not get the care they need, said Carole Puls, spokeswoman for the Indianapolis drug maker.\nLilly funded the study, which was conducted in March by an independent research organization. Researchers randomly chose 402 psychiatrists who treat patients with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia and asked them to complete a 20-minute online survey that included multiple-choice questions.\nThe results showed that 97 percent of the participants had at least one patient who stopped medication or reduced the dosage. More than half of the participating psychiatrists believed patients did so after seeing lawyers’ advertisements about anti-psychotic drugs.\nRoughly 230 of the psychiatrists felt patients requested changes in their medications after they saw the ads.\nLilly has faced thousands of lawsuits over Zyprexa, which treats schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and generated $4.4 billion in sales last year. Most claims center on allegations that Zyprexa causes diabetes or high blood sugar and that labels on the drug failed to adequately warn users of the risks.\nThe drug maker has spent about $1.2 billion to settle roughly 28,000 Zyprexa claims since 2005. Lilly said Tuesday it had settled an additional 900 claims but did not disclose a settlement amount.\nThe company still faces product liability lawsuits from roughly 750 patients.\nSome of the ads highlight the drug’s side effects, while others note the amount Lilly has spent to settle lawsuits.\nThe commercials have an “ambulance-chasing feel to them,” said Linda Rosenberg, president and CEO of the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare, which represents 1,300 behavioral healthcare organizations and helped design the survey.\n“All we’re concerned about is getting patients talking to their doctors and not getting immediately frightened by an ad,” she said.\nReports about the dangerous side effects of certain drugs often don’t address what happens when people stop taking them, said Dr. Nada Stotland, president-elect of the American Psychiatric Association. She was not involved in the Lilly study.\nStotland noted that suicides rose and the number of people taking a group of common antidepressants fell a few years ago after the media reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration mandated severe “black box” warnings for the drugs.\n“You can’t prove a cause-and-effect, but you can draw a pretty good hypothesis that there’s a relationship between suicides going up and people not being treated for depression,” she said.\nAttorney William Berg said his firm includes a disclaimer with each Zyprexa ad.\n“In all of our ads, we tell folks, ‘Do not stop taking any medication without consulting your doctor,’” he said.\nBerg Injury Lawyers has represented more than 100 patients in lawsuits against Lilly. Berg said he runs the ads to let people know about their right to compensation if they experienced side effects that were not properly disclosed.\n“If we advertising lawyers don’t tell people about their legal rights, who will? Eli Lilly sure isn’t going to,” he said.\nAllen Rothenberg, an attorney whose firm also represents Zyprexa patients, said Lilly withheld information from patients and doctors about the drug.\n“What we do is we even the playing field for the individuals, for the people,” he said.\nPuls said Lilly has made doctors aware of Zyprexa’s side effects since the drug debuted in 1996.\n“Doctors have been kept fully aware of risks associated with Zyprexa, and we think they’re the best ones to determine appropriate treatment, not plaintiffs’ attorneys,” she said.\nLilly shares fell 53 cents to $56.78 Tuesday.