1. ¹Managing Director, Solvay Pharma SpA, Via della Liberta 30, 10095, Grugliasco (TO), Italy. Email: leo.vandergeer@solvay.com
2. ²Deputy Director of Sems, University of Surrey

Revised 22 March 2000.

Abstract

Understanding how medical practitioners reach a decision on what to prescribe has been one of the more interesting areas of research for some time. Yet the accessible literature in this area is rather limited. Of particular interest is the assessment of the extent to which behaviour is entirely volitional and thus completely under the physician's control. This would determine the extent to which external stimuli, such as communications from the pharmaceutical industry and the media, have any influence or not. On the basis of a small-scale study with 38 physicians in Greece, the importance of isolating normative beliefs and the motivation to comply has been identified as a key factor to understanding the decision process for prescriptions. The evidence shows that prediction of intended prescription behaviour increases significantly when behavioural control is added to the measurements of attitude and subjective norm. In circumstances of high behavioural control, the theory of planned behaviour seems to collapse in favour of the theory of reasoned action.