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Patient education and counseling for drug samples dispensed at physicians' offices.

Pharmaceutical companies use free drug samples as an important marketing technique to promote prescription of their products at physicians’ offices. In 1999, more than 760 million samples were distributed by pharmaceutical representatives in the United States.1,2 Drug samples permit physicians to start treatment immediately and evaluate drug effectiveness for a short time without any cost to the patient. A prescription is usually given to the patient after a trial of introductory samples.3 However, sampling in this manner deprives patients of initial pharmacist screening and counseling about proper medication use, expected adverse effects, and interactions of the drug therapy.1,3 While the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Organizations requires institutions to have a policy and procedure regarding the handling, storage, and dispensing of drug samples,4 few regulations and requirements govern practitioners when dispensing or handling office drug samples. When a medication is dispensed from a pharmacy, a pharmacist checks the prescription order for proper dosing and indication, and screens the patient’s drug profile for potential drug duplications and interactions. The pharmacist counsels the patient about the proper use of the drug and answers queries.1,5,6 When a physician or nurse dispenses samples to patients, these steps may be omitted. Studies over the past few years have documented the effect of drug samples on physician prescribing habits, waste generation from drug sample packaging, increased drug costs with using drug samples, and the personal use of drug samples by health care professionals1,7–10 However, no published study describes or evaluates patient counseling on drug samples when physicians or nurses dispense them. Objective