I first recognized how I was being swayed by drug companies when a patient was in my office and said, “The Zoloft rep must come here a lot.”

I responded, “Why do you say that?”

He said, “You have a Zoloft clock, Zoloft post-its, a Zoloft clipboard and you just handed me a Zoloft pen.”

Drug reps don’t educate doctors; they market to doctors. They hand us those articles described in this essay as “evidence” of the superiority of their product.

Drug samples are another big issue for me. Free? Not so much. We start patients on the newest (and very expensive) proprietary medicine, and if it works, try switching that patient to a low cost generic that is equally effective. They’ve just be converted to a lifetime or taking the high priced medication.

And don’t get me started talking about physicians who give drug lectures…