Editorial: Induced prescription: what's in a name?

Abstract

The article in this issue of the Journal on induced prescribing by Vallès i Callol et al. appears, on initial reading, to describe a problem unique to the Spanish healthcare system. The papers cited show that the term ‘induced prescription’ or ‘prescriptión inducida’ is well recognised and understood in the Spanish literature. The term, however, is not one recognised in the anglophone world. A Medline search using ‘induced prescription’ throws up references to induced abortion and drug-induced problems but few to the phenomenon discussed in this article.