News

Rates of self-prescription and the use of prescription medications by medical interns have declined significantly over the last decade, according to a study co-authored by Depression Center member Srijan Sen, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of psychiatry. In contrast to the largest earlier study on this issue, which found the practice of self-prescription was widespread, Sen's study found that only a small proportion of physicians-in-training use prescription medications during internship, and that most obtained those drugs from personal physicians or colleagues. Sen and co-authors posit that the decline in the rate of self-medication that they found can be largely explained by newer restrictions on direct interactions with representatives from pharmaceutical companies. The study was featured in the International Business Times, MSNBC, and the Chicago Tribune.