title: Individual drug sampling does not supplant the need for head-to-head trials in dermatology.
abstract: A growing body of evidence has highlighted several risks and benefits associated with in-office sampling of prescription medications. While use-testing dermatologic medications from a sample closet may benefit some patients, it seems that the stunning lack of head-to-head trials comparing therapeutic options is a much larger and more important impediment to our determination of when the increased cost of newer agents is justified by superior efficacy, safety, or tolerability. If physicians are to retain the critical autonomy to make independent prescribing decisions in concert with our individual patients, we must take responsibility to call for and generate the comparative data we need to evaluate therapeutic options.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, and Phillip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, University of California San Francisco School of Medicine, San Francisco, California 94143-0316, USA.
authors.forename: Jack S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Resneck
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vanbeek
mesh_terms: D003879:Dermatologic Agents; D003880:Dermatology; D011307:Drug Prescriptions; D016568:Drugs, Generic; D006801:Humans; D040541:Marketing
chemical_list: D003879:Dermatologic Agents; D016568:Drugs, Generic