Healthy Skepticism Library item: 3438

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Hull FM, Marshall T.
Sources of information about new drugs and attitudes towards drug prescribing: an international study of differences between primary care physicians.
Fam Pract 1987 Jun; 4:(2):123-8

Abstract:

Doctors in different countries completed a questionnaire relating to the importance they attributed to eight possible sources of information about a new drug, their estimation of patients’ expectations of the doctor prescribing drugs under specific circumstances and their therapeutic response to common clinical general practice situations. There were major differences between the stated behaviour of doctors in different countries with regard to the importance they attached to the eight sources of information on drugs. While doctors agreed on the importance of books and journals and on the unimportance of patients, nurses and other paramedicals, there was a major disagreement about the importance of drug company representatives: this source of information about new drugs was rated high in Sweden and Yugoslavia and low in Britain and Belgium. Doctors also differed in their estimation of patients’ expectations of how they would prescribe and how they responded to the clinical problems. The differences, which might be due to differences in education about therapeutics or to cultural differences between countries, are important because of the high cost of drugs bills in all countries.

Keywords:
*analytic survey/developed countries/source of information/primary care doctors/sales representatives/journal advertisements/new drugs/PROMOTION AS A SOURCE OF INFORMATION: DOCTORS/PROMOTIONAL TECHNIQUES: DETAILING/PROMOTIONAL TECHNIQUES: JOURNAL ADVERTISEMENTS Attitude of Health Personnel* Australia Comparative Study Drug Information Services/utilization* Drug Utilization* Europe Family Practice*

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...to influence multinational corporations effectively, the efforts of governments will have to be complemented by others, notably the many voluntary organisations that have shown they can effectively represent societyâ€™s public-health interestsâ€¦
A small group known as Healthy Skepticism; formerly the Medical Lobby for Appropriate Marketing) has consistently and insistently drawn the attention of producers to promotional malpractice, calling for (and often securing) correction. These organisations [Healthy Skepticism, MÃ©decins Sans FrontiÃ¨res and Health Action International] are small, but they are capable; they bear malice towards no one, and they are inscrutably honest. If industry is indeed persuaded to face up to its social responsibilities in the coming years it may well be because of these associations and others like them.
- Dukes MN. Accountability of the pharmaceutical industry. Lancet. 2002 Nov 23; 360(9346)1682-4.