The Washington Post on Tuesday examined how "every day in medical offices around the country," physicians are "legally" prescribing medications to patients "to treat conditions for which the medicines haven't been approved" by FDA (Boodman, Washington Post, 5/23). According to a recent Archives of Internal Medicine study, medications prescribed for off-label uses account for about 20% of all prescriptions, and about three-fourths of those uses are not supported by scientific evidence (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 5/9). Randall Stafford, one of the study's co-authors and an associate professor of medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research Center, said the reasons for the practice vary and include the fact that some doctors' prescribing habits are influenced by small, promising studies conducted by manufactures who want to increase sales without completing the FDA approval process to expand its use. Other doctors "consider themselves innovators eager to try the newest drug," and some are hoping to find a treatment that works for a patient who has exhausted all FDA-approved alternatives, the Post reports. Misinformation also contributes to the popularity of off-label prescribing, according to Stafford. He noted that many patients and some physicians believe that if FDA has approved a drug, it is safe and effective for many conditions, instead of just the one for which it was approved (Washington Post, 5/23).

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