The percentage of prescriptions written with a sample jumped from 12 percent in 2001 to 18 percent in 2010.
Dermatologists who have access to free drug samples may be writing costlier prescriptions, according to a new study.
Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine found that dermatologists that are able to offer free samples to patients are more likely to write up much more expensive prescriptions than physicians at medical centers who do not have access to such samples.
These findings feed into the ongoing debate about whether or not free samples are beneficial for patients, or if they alter the prescription-writing habits of dermatologists so that they lean more towards expensive brand name medications rather than generic brands.
The percentage of prescriptions written with a sample jumped from 12 percent in 2001 to 18 percent in 2010.
The researchers focused on drugs prescribed by dermatologists for adult acne. Physicians who participated in a nationwide database called the National Disease and Therapeutic Index regularly self-reported many activities activities in their clinic, including the type of prescriptions they wrote, and whether a free sample was provided.
The prescribing patterns of physicians at academic medical centers where free samples are prohibited were compared to the prescribing habits of the physicians in the database. When the retail price of the prescribed drugs was calculated, the researchers found that the average price of prescriptions for patients who also received a fee sample was more than twice the price of drugs prescribed by a dermatologist who did not have such access to samples.
"Physicians may not be aware of the cost difference between brand-name and generic drugs, and patients may not realize that, by accepting samples, they could be unintentionally channeled into subsequently receiving a prescription for a more expensive medication," said Alfred Lane, MD, emeritus professor of dermatology and of pediatrics at Stanford, in a statement.
The findings are published in the journal .
Source : http://www.statecolumn.com/2014/04/free-drug-samples-are-costly-to-patients-study-finds/
