Can a little promotional gift like a pen or a coffee mug inscribed with a drug’s name really make a difference in a doctor’s prescription patterns? It can, researchers say.

A study reports that students from a medical school where such gifts are allowed had a more favorable attitude toward a cholesterol drug than did students from a school where they are banned.

Although hospitals have long discussed what restrictions to place on the more valuable offerings lavished by drug companies, the researchers, whose study appears in The Archives of Internal Medicine, suggest that no gift is too small.

The researchers worked with 352 third- and fourth-year students at Penn, which bans most gifts, samples and meals from drug companies, and the University of Miami, which allows them.