This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (27)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related letters  • Similar articles in JAMA  Topic Collections  • Drug Therapy  • Drug Therapy, Other  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Jason D. Christie, MD; Ilene M. Rosen, MD; Lisa M. Bellini, MD; Thomas V. Inglesby, MD; Jane Lindsay, MD; Alys Alper, MD; David A. Asch, MD, MBA

JAMA. 1998;280:1253-1255.

Context.— Self-prescription is common among practicing physicians, but little is known about the practice among resident physicians.

Objective.— To determine prescription drug use and self-prescription among US resident physicians.

Design and Setting.— Anonymous mail survey of all resident physicians in 4 US categorical internal medicine training programs in February 1997.

Main Outcome Measures.— Self-reported use of health care services and prescription medications and how they were obtained.

Results.— A total of 316 (83%) of 381 residents responded; 244 residents (78%) reported using at least 1 prescription medicine and 162 residents (52%) reported self-prescribing medications. Twenty-five percent of all medications and 42% of self-prescribed medications were obtained from a sample cabinet; 7% of all medications and 11% of self-prescribed medications were obtained directly from a pharmaceutical company representative.

Conclusions.— Self-prescription is common among resident physicians. Although self-prescription is difficult to evaluate, the source of these medications and the lack of oversight of medication use raise questions about the practice.

From the Department of Medicine (Drs Christie, Rosen, Bellini, and Asch), the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics (Dr Asch), and the Center for Bioethics (Dr Asch), University of Pennsylvania, and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center (Drs Christie, Rosen, Bellini, and Asch), Philadelphia, Pa; Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Md (Dr Inglesby); Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, Calif (Dr Lindsay); and the Department of Medicine, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, La (Dr Alper).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

RELATED LETTERS

Control of Outbreaks Due to Organism Producing Extended-Spectrum -Lactamases
Ebbing Lautenbach, Neil O. Fishman, James J. Rahal, Carl Urban, Sorana Segal-Maurer, and David Horn
JAMA. 1999;281(12):1080-1081.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Self-prescribing by Physicians
Deborah Vatcher, Eric A. Voth, Robert M. Tenery, Jr, Jason D. Christie, Lisa M. Bellini, Ilene M. Rosen, and David A. Asch
JAMA. 1999;281(16):1488-1490.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Personal Health Care of Residents: Preferences for Care Outside of the Training Institution
Dunn et al.
Acad. Psychiatry 2008;32:20-30.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Challenges faced by palliative care physicians when caring for doctors with advanced cancer
Noble et al.
Palliat Med 2008;22:71-76.
ABSTRACT  

Physician Strategies to Reduce Patients' Out-of-pocket Prescription Costs
Alexander et al.
Arch Intern Med 2005;165:633-636.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Residents' Prescription Writing for Nonpatients
Aboff et al.
JAMA 2002;288:381-385.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Illness behaviour among Norwegian physicians
Rosvold and Bjertness
Scand J Public Health 2002;30:125-132.
ABSTRACT  

Self-prescribing by Physicians
Vatcher et al.
JAMA 1999;281:1488-1490.
FULL TEXT  

Control of Outbreaks Due to Organism Producing Extended-Spectrum {beta}-Lactamases
Lautenbach et al.
JAMA 1999;281:1080-1081.
FULL TEXT