Doctors Taking Bribes from Drug Companies: Are You Sure Your Medicine is the Best for You?

The trust we have in our doctors and physicians raise them to a level of almost being deities of sorts. The all-knowing physicians have our lives in the palms of their hands and us, on faith, accept them as our saviors. A recent study may just bring your physician back to Earth. Our mere mortal M.D.'s have been taking "bribes" from drug company sales representatives and are finally admitting it.

The study, completed by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and subsequently published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that four out of five doctors allowed the sales representatives from drug companies to purchase food and drink for them. These actions directly negate recent efforts to abolish unethical conduct by physicians. The conflict of interest created by these actions has the ability to sway a physician's prescribing patterns.

Beginning in 2002 and extending to 2004, the study is the first of its kind detailing such actions by physicians. "These findings are fairly disturbing. There appears to be no dialing back at all on these relationships," said Merrill Goozner of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Goozner has reason to be concerned. For the past five years, while the study was coming to fruition, guidelines and rules were being adopted by major pharmaceutical companies discouraging the giving of gifts to doctors.

To collect enough data to publish the findings, the researchers mailed questionnaires to 3,167 doctors across the United States. The doctors questioned included anesthesiologists, cardiologists, family doctors, surgeons, internists and pediatricians. To better represent the medical community as a whole, the doctors' levels of expertise ranged from less than ten years to more than thirty years and covered both private practices as well as public hospitals and medical schools.