Just another vote for Dr_Paprika’s scenarios. I’ve seen something like this plenty.
I’ve also seen doctors “give in” and write up some antibiotics when they’re afraid the parent will take the child to a doctor who will be more free with drugs.
Boy howdy. In my psych class last semester, our book (general psych textbook by Dr. Zimbardo; it’s in storage or I’d try to find a direct quote) claimed that the average trial-and-error time for bipolar disorder was seven and a half years. (I believe it was longer for schizophrenia.) That is, the span of time between first going in for psychiatric care and finding a medication that works reliably for the patient.
I’m with the ‘who cares as long as it works’ crowd-- when it’s not critical to the patient’s health. Minor but persistent anxiety attacks, sure. Growing pains and the like (of course, after another cause has been sought), great. But the people who sell homoeopathic remedies to cancer patients should be shot. Or at least pointed at and scorned. Lots. :rolleyes:
Abby, please note that I said the doctor usually calls the 'script in. I got my information by walking over to the pharmacy and asking them. The information they gave is the information I received. I know the pharmacist and she was not lying.
If you want to read a really cool psych experiment look up Zimbardo’s Prison Experiment, performed when you could really mess with your subjects, compared to the wimpy stuff you can get through experimental committees these days.
Which companies are these? I’m sure most of the doctors and nurses I know, who rarely get anything better than pens and desk toys, would like to know. 
In my experience, doctors have been more than happy to prescribe alternate meds covered by my insurance plan, or one which has fewer side effects than a current prescription. These are often from competing companies. And some don’t mind the drug reps at all–not for free lunches, but for free samples, which mean less of a burden on cash-strapped or uninsured patients who might have to try out more than one drug for an ailment.
Used to be that pharmaceutical companies would pay physicians to go on expense free week long vacations and even pay them to listen to a short presentation on a certain drug. That was outlawed. Now the big thing is to hire them as consultants and all the “consultants” sit around and talk about the off label uses of the particular drugs. Most frequently targeted for these consultations are neurologists and psychiatrists. However, even these groups, almost exclusively, will prescribe what a patient needs, not what the drug company wants. I would think it pretty much unheard of to not prescribe a cheaper alternative or generic unless there was a medical reason to stick with the exact original drug prescribed.
I’d say 90% of the drugs I prescribe are generic.
I’m not sure I believe the 7.5 year number for schizophrenia/bipolar now that better medications are available. I would believe this number was in the text, if the textbook was from the early 90s, but not its current validity.