“Off-label” use occurs when a medication is prescribed for non-approved purposes. This case study explored physician experiences with prescribing gabapentin off-label. Semi-structured interviews with 10 specialists in the Greater Toronto Area provided data that were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Specialists described prescribing gabapentin off-label as common practice and few expressed concerns about its safety. Knowledge from various interconnected sources influenced off-label prescribing decisions. These included: social knowledge, scientific knowledge, knowledge of the drug, knowledge of the patient, and experiential knowledge. Findings were similar to previous studies examining physician prescribing behaviour. Furthermore, lack of provincial-government reimbursement for off-label uses of gabapentin (knowledge of drug coverage) was a significant barrier to prescribing. Off-label prescribing differs from other types of prescribing since there is often a lack of scientific evidence for off-label uses. The complexities of the off-label prescribing process and the degree of importance between the various influences require further exploration.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/18303 |
| Date | 18 January 2010 |
| Creators | Fukuda, Nami Christine |
| Contributors | Kohler, Jillian Clare |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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