Commercial Information on Drugs: Confusing the Physician?

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Abstract
Physicians' drug prescribing habits are not adequate. This paper gives examples from Finland suggesting that information given by drug industry is likely to create and reinforce poor prescribing. Results from four different studies looking at the content of the Finnish commercial drug catalogues suggest that physicians relying on them may be led astray. Studies on drug representatives' presentations in 1975 and 1986 showed that negative aspects of drugs were often omitted. The confusion created by the double name system (trade names and generic names) is illustrated by a survey, showing that physicians did not often know the generic equivalents of the trade names and vice versa. At the end, predictions of possible changes in commercial drug information are presented.