| ■ Many Doctors Unfamiliar With 'Off-Label' Use of Drugs: Report | 2009.08.29 |
| It's called "off-label" use, and it's a practice that allows doctors to prescribe drugs for purposes not specifically approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. But a new survey found that many physicians might not know when they are prescribing a drug "off label," The New York Times reported. The typical doctor surveyed was able to identify the correct FDA approval status for only about half the drugs on a list provided by the researchers, according to a study in the journal Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety, the newspaper said. The greatest confusion surrounded psychiatric drugs, the survey of some 600 doctors found. Nearly 20 percent who had prescribed Seroquel (quetiapine) in the previous year thought it was FDA-approved for dementia and agitation. But the drug was never approved for such use and even carries a "black box" warning that it can be dangerous for elderly patients with dementia. And 33 percent of doctors who had used lorazepam (often marketed as Ativan) to treat chronic anxiety thought it had FDA approval for this use. But, the FDA warns against using it for this purpose, the Times said. |