In continuing coverage in a column in the New York Times, Roni Caryn Rabin writes, “Physicians are allowed to use drugs in ways that are not specifically approved by the Food and Drug Administration, a practice called off-label prescribing,” but “a new survey…found that many might not even know when they are prescribing off label.” The survey, published in Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety, included “some 600 doctors.” Researchers found that “the average physician in the survey identified the FDA approval status correctly for only about half the drugs on a list provided by the researchers.” In fact, data indicated that “nearly one in five who prescribed Seroquel (quetiapine) in the previous year thought it was approved for patients with dementia and agitation, even though it was never approved for this use and even carried a ‘black box’ warning that it was dangerous for elderly patients with dementia.”
From the American Association for Justice news release.
