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Show Sunday, November 15, 1987 THE HERALD, Provo, Utah, THp -latest 1 1 Pefer H. Gott advertising agencies doctor the doctors. A few times each year, I receive unsolicited checks for or ostensibly to compensate me for the time it takes to fill out a short questionnaire on the back of each check. In return for endorsing the check, I am asked to indicate my prescribing hab$1 $2, its about certain drugs. Sometimes the questions pertain to recently released medicines. For example: How often in the past week have I prescribed Gorillacil-li- n, the mangles tact? Is (a new antibiotic that all germs on conthe price of Gorilla-cilli- n mere $10 a pill) a problem for my patients? Why would I use Gorillacillin in place of other, cheaper and more traditional antibiot- ics? (multiple choice) More often than not, the questionnaire asks about my use of common drugs. For instance, how many times a month do I recommend aspirin, Bayer Tyaspirin, acetaminophen, lenol, Advil and Anacin? over-the-count- er cancer will increase Doctors recommend a medicine, even medicine that is not by prescription. We have our favorites, it's true. However, physicians usually make decisions about drugs by using criteria that are, in truth, somewhat vague, depending on the healer's mood, the patient's age, the severity of symptoms, the phase of the moon and what comes to mind at the time. The office transaction may sound something like this: "I think you should use some aspirin for your arthritis, Gladys. Try it for a week and let me know how you over competing brands. That's the message printed lot of on the screen. The "Should I use coated aspirin, Bayer or just plain aspirin, doctor?" "Well, what have you got at home?" "Oh, some regular aspirin we've had in the medicine cabinet for a while." "OK, try that." Of course, if the patient is a child with a fever, a doctor would probably recommend acetaminophen, because aspirin is a suspected cause of Reye's syndrome, a dangerous brain disorder. "Use what for my child, doctor?" "Acetaminophen." "Aceta what?" "You know, acetaminophen. Tylenol." "Oh, right. I'll get some." er says that four out of five physicians in a survey recommended Bayer. And that's a big difference. Doctors recommend a lot of things. Recommending is not synonymous with endorsement or but preference, necessarily there you are. over-the-count- er feel." voice-ov- Dr. Peter Gott M.D. Newspaper Enterprise Assn. When I get down to filling out the questionaire, I being more or less honest about this sort of thing usually check off all the drugs. Let's see: I probably recommended aspirin about two dozen times. Yes, a little Bayer, too, because three patients preferred that brand. Oh, sure, some acetamino- phen or Tylenol a few times. Maybe some Advil or Anacin thrown in along the way. So it goes. The checkquestionnaire clears the bank and returns to the polling company that has been hired to tally up the score by collating the thousands of checks received from nerds like me. A few weeks later, I am treated to a TV ad proclaiming that four out of five doc- tors prefer Bayer aspirin In my opinion, drug companies find out what medicine we're using and then fit the data to their own nefarious purposes. I wouldn't be surprised to discover that, in reality, four of five doctors recommend everything. The fifth doctor, a pathologist or psychiatrist, probably doesn't recommend anything. I haven't yet figured out how to beat the system. It's no good to ignore the ques- tionnaires; there always will be physicians who will fill out the darned things. Maybe doctors should be less forthright and indicate that we are recommending only the most esoteric and unknown drugs. But that won't work, either; an obscure drug company will reap the benefits. Perhaps the answer lies in a public that will eventually discover the truth: Doctors' prescribing habits are highly individualized, change from day to day, and do not mean that one product is necesssar-il- y superior to another identical or similar medicine. By ROBERT BYRD Associated Press Writer ATLANTA (AP) Breast cancer, already a leading cause of premature death among American women, may become "an increasingly serious public health problem," the national Centers for Disease Control warned Friday. The CDC, in its weekly report, said cancer is the leading cause of premature loss of life among American women, and breast cancer is the leader in (AP) - The Atlanta-base- agency uses d ancy of American women. Breast cancer accounts for more than 25 percent of all the lost prematurely by American women to cancer, the most of any specific type of cancer, the report said. life-yea- advantages over two other vaccines available. Among other things, it has caused no serious side effects and few minor ones, provides at least three years' immunity with one shot and can be stored without refrigeration. Lowe said health workers using injection guns could give the vaccine to 1,200 people an hour in poor parts of the world where medical care is meager. Although no one knows typhoid's true scope, some estimate it strikes 50 million annually. The vaccine was developed by Dr. John B. Robbins and colleagues at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The vaccine is a purified concentration of the outer capsule of the typhoid bacterium, a germ called Salmonella typhi. This material, known as Vi, prompts the body to produce antibodies that kill the typhoid microbe. t cancer breast premature deaths; 61 percent of black women with breast cancer before age 65 die, compared with 45 percent of white women, the CDC said. The CDC warned that the United States may be on the verge of a marked increase in the disease. The U.S. birth rate began a sharp climb in 1945, kicking off the "baby boom," and the first "baby boomers" are now reaching 40 the age at which the incidence of breast cancer begins to "years of potential life lost" as a measure of premature death; age 65 is a statistical benchmark, not the life expect- rs climb sharply, the agency said. 'T DO JsJL m f'li 'df u MERIT V Lock in... h i Scientists which was developed by U.S. government researchers, was 75 percent effective in stopping the disease without causing the side effects that undermined previous efforts, scientists reported. They said they hope an even more potent vaccine can be developed against typhoid fever, which flourishes where water is contaminated by sewage. "The thing I find exciting is the possibility that one could go into a defined population and, if not eradicate, at least enormously reduce the amount of typhoid fever, even without addressing issues like safe water supply," said Dr. Charles. U. Lowe, who organized testing of the vaccine. The vaccine, described in the New England Journal of Medicine, has not been approved yet by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for routine use. Lowe said it costs a penny a dose to make and has many from the disease. Black women are more likely than white women to suffer that category. In 1984, American breast cancer victims were robbed of more than 227,000 "years of potential life," or life they would have had if they had lived to age 65, the CDC said. typhoid BOSTON Breast cancer is the second leading cause of all cancer deaths regardless of age U.S. among females, behind lung cancer. Women diagnosed with lung cancer tend to be older than women diagnosed with breast cancer. Researchers estimate that 130,000 women in the United States will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer this year and 41,000 women will die - Vaccine wipes out believe a new penny-a-dos- e vaccine may reduce and even wipe out typhoid fever, a deadly disease of poverty that strikes an estimated 50 million people a year worldwide. In tests on nearly 7,000 people in Nepal, the vaccine, f'jf Center fears breast ctors e By Peter H. Gott, M.D. After several months during which I scrutinized my mail and carefully analyzed the claims made in television ads, I think I have discovered the Rosetta stone: the secret of how drug companies come up with their "four out of five" doctor endorsements. I thought you might be interested in my theory about how 17 ' from around the world. Dr. - Page v r k V r Watch for this special ANNUAL YIELD edition in the Sunday November 22nd edition of the Daily Herald You'll want to read 1. ft Y I V-- Q V I. about 7 this season's exciting high school, college and professional basketball line-upand catch the latest on individual players. You won't want to miss special features about the Cougar squad with predictions about its chances for the conference title. Whether your interest is in sports or people or both, you'll find ANNUAL RATE s, great entertainment Basketball A in FOR THREE YEARS! You can't find a safer, more secure high yielding investment in today's market, than our current CD. 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