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Drug
Companies Greatly Influence
Doctors’ Prescribing Habits
Drug representatives
from pharmaceutical companies greatly influence general practitioners’
(GPs) decisions of whether to prescribe new drugs.
Despite risks that
the information may be misleading, biased or inaccurate, the study
found that family doctors are more likely to rely on information
supplied by drug manufacturers rather than on information from
independent sources.
Often, researchers
said, GPs relied on the pharmaceutical industry as their major
information source.
In the study, researchers
asked 107 GPs in northwest England to explain how they made the
decision to prescribe certain new drugs. A total of 19 drugs that
had been introduced in the United Kingdom between January 1998
and May 1999 were included in the study.
The doctors were asked
to describe the context in which they prescribed the new drugs,
the reasons why the chose one drug instead of another, and how
they obtained the information that influenced their decision.
Most commonly, GPs
were initially introduced to new drugs through sales representatives.
Other, less influential, sources included newspapers and hospital
consultants.
Drug companies were
also the greatest influence on the GPs’ decisions of which
drugs to prescribe, followed by consultants and patient requests
for specific treatments.
About 70 percent of
GPs regarded drug representatives as an efficient way to obtain
new drug information, according to researchers. While the doctors
were generally wary of the drug industry’s objectives, they
tended to believe that its information would be selective but
accurate.
The GPs reported that
they could generally spot misleading information, however, according
to study findings only 17 percent of GPs sought out evidence from
peer-reviewed journals before making prescribing decisions. Their
reasons for not seeking such evidence-based information included
lack of time, difficulty in interpretation, irrelevance and lack
of attention to clinical experience.
The study warns that
pharmaceutical companies have a great influence on GPs and stresses
the urgent need for straightforward and reliable drug information
from independent sources.
Related articles:
Family
Practice January 2003;20:61-68
Reference
Source 89
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