{"id":31956,"date":"2011-03-02T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-03-02T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/researchdev\/2011\/03\/02\/free-journals-often-promote-costly-or-problematic-drugs-study-finds-2\/"},"modified":"2011-03-02T05:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-03-02T10:00:00","slug":"free-journals-often-promote-costly-or-problematic-drugs-study-finds-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/research\/2011\/03\/02\/free-journals-often-promote-costly-or-problematic-drugs-study-finds-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Professor Joel Lexchin co-authors study on free journals and costly or problematic drugs"},"content":{"rendered":"
Medical publications distributed freely to health professionals often promote drugs that are costly or have potential problems, says a new study warning that such practices could influence which drugs doctors prescribe, wrote The Globe and Mail<\/em> Feb. 28<\/a>:<\/p>\n Unlike medical publications that require paid subscriptions, free journals get most or all of their funding from pharmaceutical advertising.<\/p>\n A group of researchers keen to discover what effect industry ties have on the content of published medical journals conducted a detailed comparison of journals that are free, those that have some pharmaceutical advertising and subscription fees, and those that are subscription-only.<\/p>\n Their findings, published on Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal<\/em>, show that free journals are much more likely than other publications to display ads for new drugs that are more expensive than older, generic versions as well as drugs that are linked to some concerns over effectiveness.<\/p>\n But the researchers also discovered that free journals frequently print editorial content that directly recommends the drugs that are advertised in the journal.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s pretty well drug company advertising,\u201d said Joel Lexchin<\/a>, a professor in the School of Health Policy & Management <\/a>[Faculty of Health<\/a>] at ¿ì²¥ÊÓÆµ in Toronto and one of the study\u2019s authors. \u201cThese journals probably have a role in influencing prescribing behaviour.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n