JTK-
I agree with you on the R & D costs, which in effect we Americans are picking up.
As the son of a physician, I think I have some information directly from doctors which may surprise some of those on this board.
1. Many drugs are almost completely worthless. Even a time-honored drug like "Donatol" is only of value because it has a little phonobarbitol in it. A doctor might just as well have written you an Rx for Phenobarb!
2. Generally speaking, one can almost always get away with a drug that is off-patent. The older drugs are very often 95-99% as good as the new drugs, but are no longer pushed by the physician/detail man/drug companies/ et al. (Also, by using a proven drug, you will not wind up as an unfortunate statistic of a drug industry.)
3. Until very recently, doctors did not even memorize the generic names of drugs. My own doctor told me that it is only withing the past five years that he has had to learn all of the generic names of the differewnt medications.
4. Very often, physicians are "forced" to presribe drugs that they know are completely inappropriate. I asked one doctor friend why physicians presribe antibiotics for colds when they know that this family of drugs is useless against viruses. He told me that patients demand it! He said, "If I don't prescribe it for them, the next doctor will!"
5. One doctor (internist) told me that 65% of the people that come to him do not need to be seen at all. Almost all of them walk away with prescriptions for something, because doctors use prescriptions almost like placebos in many cases. They really haven't the time to spend with the patients, so they simply write prescriptions.
I could go on, but there are two basic points...use generics and don't take anything you don't have to.
schloss
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