Study, June/16: Pharmaceutical Industry-Sponsored Meals & Prescribing Patterns

The full title of this American study is "Pharmaceutical Industry-Sponsored Meals and Physician Prescribing Patterns for Medicare Beneficiaries". Not surprisingly, these meals are correlated with more prescriptions of specific drugs.

 

According to the study:

 

"Conclusions and Relevance:  Receipt of industry-sponsored meals was associated with an increased rate of prescribing the brand-name medication that was being promoted. The findings represent an association, not a cause-and-effect relationship."

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27322350

 

 

Thanks for a another great article Lapis. 

Let me get this straight...the equivalent of a meal at Red Robin or Olive Garden leads to higher prescription rates for the drugs being promoted?!?!  This is a simple, brilliant study that boils our mental health profs down to what they truly are...

The conclusions state there's an association and not a cause-and-effect relationship, but my take on it would be that there's strong influence as a result of these little perks. The doctor will keep that particular medication in mind, and then prescribe it. Obviously, it's not about which medication is best or most appropriate for the person -- just which one the doctor remembers.

Thank you Lapis.

You're welcome! I must say, I was surprised to even see a study on this topic! At least there are concrete numbers. The next step is to get the info out to the masses, but with many of these studies, the results get buried.

It's a lot to do with the relationship and rapport the drug rep develops with the doctor.  This article reveals all.

 

http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.0040150

 

Physicians are susceptible to corporate influence because they are overworked, overwhelmed with information and paperwork, and feel underappreciated. Cheerful and charming, bearing food and gifts, drug reps provide respite and sympathy; they appreciate how hard doctor's lives are, and seem only to want to ease their burdens. But, as SA's New Hampshire testimony reflects, every word, every courtesy, every gift, and every piece of information provided is carefully crafted, not to assist doctors or patients, but to increase market share for targeted drugs (see Table 1). In the interests of patients, physicians must reject the false friendship provided by reps. Physicians must rely on information on drugs from unconflicted sources, and seek friends among those who are not paid to be friends.

 

This has to stop.  I used to be in sales and marketing and there'a nothing like taking your customer to a nice lunch or dinner to seal the deal.  But I was selling machinery, not addictive and mind-altering poisons for god's sake.  Show me a politician who is 100% committed to solving this problem (not just lip service) and I will get out there and work for him/her.  Sorry for the reference to politics but this has nothing to do with any party or election, it's a general comment.  Something has to be done, as a society we are being poisoned to death, not just by the pill pushers but by pesticides, GMO's, preservatives, and on, and on...it's MADNESS.

Here check out your Doctor and what HE~ She Recievied from Big Pharma ! ~ https://projects.propublica.org/docdollars/query?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=DR.+JONES+&state=NY&commit=Search