To push widespread adoption of atypical antipsychotics for a wide variety of ills, the usual sales tactics were used, including: direct-to-consumer advertising (in the United States); sales visits to prescribers; touting overly optimistic cost-effectiveness research; free drug samples; sponsored medical education; peer-to-peer marketing (paying physicians to market to their peers); funding patient advocacy groups; and, perhaps most importantly, biased presentation of evidence in medical journal articles.
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http://www.pharmaceutical-journal.com/opinion/comment/atypical-antipsychotics-overrated-and-overprescribed/20067929.article