WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- Most U.S. prescription drug users would be unhappy to learn their drug was switched to another in the same class without their knowledge, a survey indicates.
Consumers also would be distressed to learn if the so-called therapeutic substitution, usually done as a cost-saving measure, was carried out without their doctor's approval, the National Consumers League survey indicated.
Surveyors said about two-thirds of the polled 1,387 adults who filled prescriptions in the past two years never heard of therapeutic substitution.
Seventy percent of respondents said they would be "very" or "extremely" concerned if their prescription had been switched without their doctor's knowledge, results indicated. Another 77 percent said they object to the practice without doctor or patient consent.
"People may not know about it, but it's happening, and if it is happening, it should be happening with full transparency, and patients and doctors should be in on this," the league's executive director, Sally Greenberg, told HealthDay News. "It's not necessarily something that we're condemning."
Others, however, said they didn't think the practice was widespread and that, when used, doctors and patients were informed, HealthDay said.
"I think they're making much ado about nothing. I can't imagine this goes on without the doctor's or patient's knowledge," said Robert Freeman, a pharmaceutical sciences professor at Texas A&M Health Science Center's College of Pharmacy.
