We investigate how the prescribing behavior of physicians reacts to scientific information and recommendations released by public authorities. Taking the example of antidepressant drugs, we use French panel data on exhaustive prescriptions made by a representative sample of general practitioners to more than 110,000 depressed patients between 2000 and 2008. New results revealing an increase in suicidal thinking among children taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) were reported in 2004 and prompted the release of new guidelines by public health authorities. We identify the effect of this unexpected warning on physicians’ drug choices while addressing the possibility that patients heterogeneity may be correlated with unobserved physician characteristics. While the warning decreased the average probability of prescribing SSRIs, we find that physicians’ responses to the warning were very heterogeneous and larger if the physician had a higher preference for prescribing SSRIs before the warning.

我们调查医生的处方行为如何对公共当局发布的科学信息和建议做出反应。以抗抑郁药为例，我们使用了法国面板数据，该数据由全科医生的代表性样本在 2000 年至 2008 年间为 110,000 多名抑郁症患者开出的详尽处方。新结果显示，服用选择性血清素再摄取抑制剂的儿童自杀念头有所增加（ SSRIs) 于 2004 年被报道，并促使公共卫生当局发布了新的指导方针。我们确定了这一意外警告对医生药物选择的影响，同时解决了患者异质性可能与未观察到的医生特征相关的可能性。虽然警告降低了开出 SSRIs 的平均概率，