Dopamine versus Dobutamine: Are All the Facts There?

During the last 5 years we believe that the prescribing of dobutamine has increased over that of the older agent dopamine. The literature reports advantages such as less tachycardia, less peripheral vasoconstriction, and fewer increases in intracardiac pressures with dobutamine as opposed to dopamine. After a thorough review of the literature, we were unable to find conclusive evidence of these initial findings, and present several studies to show potential flaws in their interpretation that may help explain the increased use of dobutamine over dopamine. The overuse of dobutamine, if it does exist, must be dealt with by pharmacy departments in an informed, yet unbiased fashion, to aid in preventing the continued escalation of health care costs.