Drug companies influence???!!!! Gasp, say it ain't so, joe. No, DUH! Just take a look at the half hour long commercials for medications on tv. That's the reason I dont watch TV anymore....sheesh.

In this day & age, with all the GREED in the business world, common sense would tell you that doctors are on the take!

Unfortunately this study is probably true in a lot of cases. Many new drugs have side effects that do not show up or get reported until they have been available for months. A lot of busy docs will prescribe them because they think the newest meds are "cutting edge" when they are just the same old med, different verse. The drug companies push them as the latest in treatment. This is more usually the reason they get used nowdays than doctors being "on the take" although that happens too.

Patients must be their own advocate and read about these meds. There are reputable on-line sites but they should not be ones sponsored by the drug companies. A lot of elderly patients just do not look at these sites or even read the literature that the pharmacist gives them. A problem just as big is incompatibility between two drugs. This is even harder to sort out and even more doctors do not consider this when prescribing. Example: The beneficial effects of tamoxifen in preventing breast cancer are negated by most antidepressants. The oncologist prescribes the tamoxifen and the well meaning family MD starts an antidepressant that causes the tamoxifen to fail in doing what it is supposed to do. Check out your meds, even over the counter ones.

I have high triglycerides and my cardiologist (I recently got a cardiac stent) prescribed Lovaza. $164.09 a month for fish oil avaliable for $18.84 at Sam's club. I blindly picked-up the prescrition that was called in without looking at the price. I recently switched from Niaspan for $72.63 to generic Niacin and take a 325 mg aspirin 1/2 hour before to stop the flushing.

There needs to be repercussions and fines imposed on professional, so called caring adults that take advantage & short change unsuspecting, needy people..!!!!!

Why shouldn't we all feel obligated to play fair. In the long run there would be plenty of profits to go around. What is this? To Nickle and dime people doesn't make you rich. It makes you immoral, cheap and dangerous.

This is no great revolution in knowledge and understanding. Pharmacists have been fighting against drug sampling for generations with little or no success. Promoting medications to practicing medical personnel is inexpensive and easy for drug manufacturers, and prescribers have been listening to sales- oriented, untrained, biased sales people since mass drug manufacturing was instituted.

Who paid for this study? From my 25hrs in pharmacy, I can say assuredly that the drug companies have way less influence than the insurance companies. Take a prescription to the pharmacy and if it's non-formulary (what the insurance company wants you to have), you'll have to get the prescription changed. They are the biggest influence but the least talked about problem in healthcare.

There's a cure Called SIBUTRAMINE (known as Meridia). There are 25 million people in America, suffering from this disorder, PTSD and Fibromyligia. Abbott Labs took it off the market. Probably because they can't make continuous money from a cure. Our Soldiers need this drug NOW.. I use it to knock out my pain caused by RSD(Reflex-Sympathetic-Disorder),which is similar to Fibromyligia, and Arthritis without side affects or feeling stoned. Please Help!!!

One other thought......Drug companies cannot pick your doctor for you like your insurance company can.