Email this article to a friend

Printable Version

Articles Related to This Article: • The great direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising con: how patients and doctors alike are easily influenced to demand dangerous drugs • Why Doctors are Idiots: 150 Years of Disatrous Advice on Children's Health (satire) • Experiment shows medical doctors to be glorified drug dealers, easily manipulated by drug companies Support NaturalNews advertisers - Advertise with NaturalNews Nutrition Can Save America! FREE report by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, reveals why nutritional deficiencies are destroying America's health and economy... and how to restore America's future with real food.

(NaturalNews) According to a new study published in the Journal of Medical Ethics, most doctors believe accepting free drug samples from pharmaceutical companies is ethical, though the majority believe other doctors are more likely to be influenced by such incentives than they are.

Researchers surveyed nearly 400 members of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists about their relationships with pharmaceutical companies, and found that a third of respondents believed free drug samples influenced doctors' prescribing practices, though more than 90 percent thought accepting the samples was ethical.

"Relationships between doctors and drug companies are far too cozy," said health author and drug industry critic Mike Adams. "Multiple studies show doctors are easily and predictably influenced by free samples, free meals and free vacations sponsored by drug companies, and yet most physicians continue to accept these 'legal bribes' even while acknowledging their influence on prescribing behavior. This represents a serious lapse in the ethics of modern medicine."

More than 50 percent of respondents to the survey believed that it was ethical to accept profitable consulting positions with drug companies for prescribing "high volume" amounts of that company's drugs, while a third thought their decision to prescribe a certain drug would be influenced by accepting free samples.

However, most survey respondents felt that they were far less likely to accept gifts, free lunches and consultancies than other doctors, even if the gifts were offered without free drug samples. Those respondents also believed other doctors' prescribing decisions would be more influenced by accepting drug company gifts than their own decisions.

Most respondents said they gave out the free drug samples they accepted to help patients with financial difficulties, and less than two thirds said they gave out drug samples because they felt they were effective treatments.

Roughly two-thirds of the doctors who responded to the survey knew of the professional guidelines between their profession and the pharmaceutical industry, and 40 percent believed the guidelines should not be tightened.

###

Get articles like this delivered to you FREE in our popular email newsletter

Related CounterThink Cartoons:

Related Articles: • The great direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising con: how patients and doctors alike are easily influenced to demand dangerous drugs • Why Doctors are Idiots: 150 Years of Disatrous Advice on Children's Health (satire) • Experiment shows medical doctors to be glorified drug dealers, easily manipulated by drug companies	Take Action: Support NaturalNews.com Email this article to a friend Share this article on: NewsVine | digg | del.icio.us Permalink to this article: http://www.NaturalNews.com/020624_doctors_drug_profits_drug_companies.html Reprinting this article: Non-commercial use OK, cite NaturalNews.com with clickable link. Embed article link: (copy HTML code below): <a href = "http://www.NaturalNews.com/020624_doctors_drug_profits_drug_companies.html">Doctors say free drug samples influence prescribing behavior, but still think the influence is ethical</a>