Trade names and generic names. Problems for prescribing physicians.

Drugs are marketed with generic and trade names. Our purpose was to study whether this dual name system causes problems to physicians. We interviewed 102 Finnish physicians to find out how well they recalled the composition of combination drugs, and connected the corresponding generic and trade names. The generic name of the given trade-names were known on average by 83% of the physicians who had recently prescribed them, but knowledge of the combination drugs was poor. When generic names were given, on average 9% of the physicians who had prescribed them could mention the corresponding trade names. A multitude of names causes information problems, with possible clinical consequences. From the information point of view, one naming system would be desirable.