Does Patient Demand Contribute to the Overuse of Prescription Drugs

This study conducted an experiment in Mali to test whether patients pressure doctors to prescribe medical treatment they do not necessarily need. The experiment varied patients’ information about a discount for antimalarial tablets and measured demand for both tablets and costlier antimalarial injections. The study finds evidence of patient-driven demand: informing patients about the discount, instead of letting doctors decide to share this information, increased discount use by 35 percent and overall malaria treatment by 10 percent. These marginal patients rarely had malaria, worsening the illness-treatment match. Providers did not use the information advantage to sell injections -- their use fell in both information conditions.