GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK’s) steady addition to the list of disorders Paxil is supposed to treat and an energetic campaign for its use have lead to an astounding increase in the number of users. There are an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 new users every day. In 2001, doctors wrote about 25 million new prescriptions for Paxil. Some of those were for pregnant women. However, GSK did not tell them or their doctors about the risks of defects, including heart defects, in unborn babies. How does this happen?

Drug companies are really good at getting doctors’ attention. Here are some ways they do it. There’s a new study by a team of researchers from Harvard www.harvard.edu, Yale www.yale.edu and the University of Melbourne www.unimelb.edu.au. This study polled doctors across the United States by sending questionnaires to 3,167 physicians. Responses came in from 1,662 physicians. And what did they show?

Almost all the doctors (94%) acknowledged that they had accepted some form of gifts or money from pharmaceutical and medical-device manufacturing firms. What kinds of gifts and money? 83% allowed company representatives to treat them to meals; 78% took free drug samples; 35% accepted reimbursements for the costs of attending educational conferences hosted by drug companies -- in some cases including travel, food and lodging. www.wsj.com. Here is what we’d like to know: Over dinner, or when handing samples to the doctors, were the doctors told about any risks of the drugs, so they could inform their patients?