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Douglas R. Bess, MD

JAMA. 1980;243(6):525-527.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Philosophy

SINCE the 1960s, the complex topic of so-called "substitution, drug product selection, or generic dispensing"¹ has evoked much stürm und drang ("storm and stress") in both lay and professional articles. To the detriment of patient, physician, and pharmacist, the issue of generic substitution has been more obfuscated with rhetoric than enlightened by fact. Even exactly what is debated is often unclear, as "positions have had time to harden into symbolic and rigid polarities: Free Enterprise vs. Government, Big Business vs. Consumer Groups, and—especially today—Quality Assurance vs. Cost Containment."²

Basic concepts of pharmacokinetics (the study of the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of a drug) have been reviewed elsewhere³ and will not be covered in this article. The reader, however, is strongly urged to acquaint himself with the basic concepts of bioavailability—such as disintegration and dissolution rates, single-dose and steady-state study designs, blood concentration-time curves, and the . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
Emory University Atlanta

From the Department of Psychiatry, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta.

Footnotes
Reprint requests to Department of Psychiatry, Emory University School of Medicine, Woodruff Memorial Building, PO Box AF, Atlanta, GA 30322 (Dr Bess).

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