title: Xmas (brand substitution not permitted).
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study drug prescribing by brand name versus generic name in an Australian teaching hospital.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, 53% of drugs were prescribed by brand name. Brand names were preferred when they were shorter and easier to remember and spell, when there was only one brand on the market, and when the brand name ended in an x.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Doctors might be encouraged to prescribe generically if generic names were devised using the same principles marketers use for devising brand names.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, Canberra Hospital, Canberra, ACT. jonathan.bromleyATact.gov.au
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bromley
authors.forename: Nicholas A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Buckley
mesh_terms: D020958:Australian Capital Territory; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016568:Drugs, Generic / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching; D006801:Humans; D009275:Names; D010330:Patents as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012189:Retrospective Studies
chemical_list: D016568:Drugs, Generic