What's in the medicine cabinet?

Fonte: aqui.

Atenção aos Consultores Médicos

Correia de Campos levantou há alguns dias, a possibilidade da existência de conluios entre Consultores médicos, em funções de avaliação de medicamentos e simultaneamente em colaboração com laboratórios farmacêuticos.

Nos EUA, a Eli Lilly, um dos maiores laboratórios do mundo, vai iniciar uma nova política de publicação dos valores que paga aos seus Consultores, que são sobretudo médicos:

• In an industry first, Eli Lilly and Co. says it will begin disclosing how much money it paid to individual doctors for advice, speeches and other services.
• The drug company's move comes as members of Congress push a disclosure bill in an effort to prevent such payments from improperly influencing medical decisions.
• Beginning next year, Eli Lilly will disclose payments of more than $500 to doctors for their roles as advisers and for speaking at educational seminars. In later years, the company will expand the types of payments disclosed to include such things as travel, entertainment and gifts.
• Some have voiced concerns that doctors are influenced by these payments in their treatment decisions and that this in turn can drive up medical bills. Although most physicians believe that free lunches or trips have no effect on their medical judgment, research has shown that these type of payments can affect how people act.

Ora bem, poderemos estar perante uma revolução na prática do exercício clínico, nomeadamente na forma como os médicos processam a sua decisão face a medicamentos alternativos. Não significa isto, que se vá eliminar até à eternidade as eventuais ligações perigosas que possam existir. Mas, os seres humanos devem tentar buscar em cada momento, servir mais os cidadãos e procurar menos formas ilícitas, ainda que subreptícias de ganhar dinheiro rápido, como se diz aqui:

• "The ethical handwriting is on the wall. Disclosure is coming. States are pushing for it, and once a few states do, it's hard to imagine the federal government won't line up behind," said Dr. Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. "I think that's a good thing because we have a great deal of empirical evidence that gift giving can influence behavior in terms of prescriptions, publishing positive findings but suppressing negative findings, and generating enthusiasm for new drugs."

O acesso facilitado aos medicamentos

Não sabemos o que se passa em Portugal, sobre o acesso a medicamentos sob prescrição. Nos EUA, a situação não é boa, sobretudo tendo em conta que muitos dos que acedem aos medicamentos são jovens e podem utilizá-los com fins não desejáveis.

Vejamos o que aqui nos dizem:

• A growing number of teenagers say it's easier to illegally obtain prescription drugs than to buy beer, according to a survey published today.
• The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University asked: "Which is easiest for someone your age to buy: cigarettes, beer, marijuana, or prescription drugs such as OxyContin, Percocet, Vicodin or Ritalin, without a prescription?" Nineteen percent of teenagers found it easier to purchase prescription drugs than cigarettes, beer or marijuana, compared with 13 percent a year ago.

Mas, o pior é que os jovens têm uma confiança excessiva nos medicamentos: "Kids think that because these are medicines that are prescribed, they are safe," she said. "The problem is that there is very little difference between the amount they take for a high and the amount that causes an overdose."