Docs Not Told About Side Effects

The majority of family doctors receive little or no information from drug company representatives about potentially harmful effects of medications, according to an international study of U.S, Canadian, and French physicians. The findings are published online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

A release from the lead investigating institution, the University of British Columbia, reports that the participating doctors indicated that they were likely to start prescribing these drugs. This is consistent with previous research that shows prescribing behavior is influenced by pharmaceutical promotion.

The study, which had doctors fill out questionnaires about each promoted medicine following sales visits showed that a whopping 59% of sales representatives failed to provide any information about common or serious side effects and the type of patients who should not use the medicine. Worse yet, in Vancouver and Montreal, no potential harms were mentioned for 66% of promoted medicines.

The release quotes lead author Barbara Mintzes as saying, "Laws in all three countries require sales representatives to provide information on harm as well as benefits. But no one is monitoring these visits and there are next to no sanctions for misleading or inaccurate promotion."

Serious risks were mentioned in only 6% of the promotions, even though 57% of the medications involved in these visits came with US Food and Drug Administration "black box" or Health Canada boxed warnings the strongest drug warning that can be issued by both countries. "We are very concerned that doctors and patients are left in the dark and patient safety may be compromised," says Mintzes, an expert on drug advertising in UBC's School of Population and Public Health. Doctors in Toulouse were more likely to be told of a harmful effect in a promotional visit, compared to doctors in Canada and the U.S., according to the study. Researchers suggested that this may reflect stricter regulatory standards for promotion of medicines in France. In an accompanying third party comment, Dr. Tom Perry, an internal medicine and clinical pharmacology specialist at the UBC Hospital in Vancouver who is not part of the study expressed concern about the findings: "Doctors learn relatively little about drugs in medical school," he said. "And much of their exposure to pharmacology after graduation may be in the form of advertising. If they are unaware of the potential harms from drugs they prescribe, patients inevitably suffer the consequences." Our takeaway here at ThirdAge.com regarding this study is that consumers need to be their own watchdogs when it comes to taking prescribed medications. Your best bet is to consult your pharmacist, who is a specialist in drugs and their side effects. Here's a link to a ThirdAge.com article about this topic, "Getting the Most from Your Pharmacist" http://www.thirdage.com/medical-care/getting-the-most-from-your-pharmacist

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Docs Not Told About Side Effects