A majority of primary care physicians report that their patients ask for drugs they have seen in advertisements and that they often accommodate their requests, according to a survey published in the February issue of Consumer Reports, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. The survey questioned 335 doctors and 39,090 U.S. residents. It found that 78% of PCPs received patient requests for specific drugs they have seen advertised on television and that 67% reported they sometimes grant the requests. In addition, the survey found that 41% of doctors feel patients are poorly informed. According to Robert Thompson, a professor of popular culture at Syracuse University, direct-to-consumer drug ads "have completely turned around the old relationship when the doctor was this godlike character and you used to go in there all deferentially." Consumer Reports urges readers to "ignore drug ads" and cautions that the drug industry "spends billions of dollars a year trying to get you to pester your doctor for expensive, new brand-name drugs" (Hendrick, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 1/9).