Posted by audrey on March 13, 2003, at 11:24:37
In reply to Notice next time you have an appointment, posted by Dragonslayer on March 12, 2003, at 16:38:05
This is a big issue with me, especially since I work in a huge hospital and see drug reps all over the place. Shortly after my psychiatrist started trying meds out on me, I confronted him about the pharm. reps and wanted to know who he got free drugs and favors from. He'd never given me any free samples like my family doctor (who had NO idea what he was doing) used to, but I wanted to know what was going on. So we had a long conversation about it. He told me he doesn't accept free samples or the free dinners or trips, but will occasionally take 5 minutes to talk to a rep. One interesting, and very disturbing, thing I learned is that drug reps have access to pharmacy records and can see what drugs a doctor is prescribing (just info about what the doc is prescribing, nothing about patients). My doctor once talked to a guy who was peddling Prozac to him, and he came back a month later and asked why he hadn't increased his Prozac prescriptions. My doctor told me he told the guy not to come back. Hopefully he's being honest with me! But it's indeed something to be aware of!
poster:audrey
thread:208467
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030310/msgs/208735.html