Dermatologists with access to free drug samples are more likely to write prescriptions for drugs that are expensive, according to a recent study The State Column reported.

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine found that dermatologists that are able to offer free samples to patients write costlier prescriptions that are about twice the cost of perceptions written by physicians at a medical center where such samples are prohibited.

"Physicians may not be aware of the cost difference between brand-name and generic drugs," said Alfred Lane, MD, professor emeritus of dermatology and of pediatrics at Stanford, "and patients may not realize that, by accepting samples, they could be unintentionally channeled into subsequently receiving a prescription for a more expensive medication."

For the study, researchers focused on drugs prescribed by dermatologists for adult acne. They analyzed data from a nationwide database where physicians Index regularly self-reported many activities in their clinic, including the type of prescriptions they wrote, and whether a free sample was provided, called the National Disease and Therapeutic

Researchers compared the prescribing patterns of physicians at academic medical centers where free samples are prohibited to the prescribing habits of the physicians in the database.

The findings contribute to the ongoing debate about whether or not free drug samples are beneficial or instead skew the prescription tendencies of doctors to favor brand name drugs at the expense of patients and their health insurance companies.

The study was recently published in the journal JAMA Dermatology.