BMJ  2003;327:861 (11 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7419.861-a

Education and debate

Ask the patients—they may want to know more than you think

¹ Consumation, 53 Hosack Road, London SW17 7QW, ² Pharmacy Practice and Medicines Management Group, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT

What information do patients need about medicines? Partnership between health professionals and patients depends, in part, on the provision and exchange of accurate and reliable information about drugs, but who should provide it? We invited contributors to answer the question from the perspectives of patients, clinicians, and the pharmaceutical industry

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

People's appetite for information about their treatment is often greater than doctors believe.¹ Clearly, patients vary in the extent of their desire for partnership in making medical decisions. It follows that part of the duty of a health professional is to work out how much partnership a patient wants, and what information he or she needs to support that level of partnership.^{2 3}

People have a broad range of information preferences that may differ at different times and for different reasons. They may want more information than prescribers want to give—for example, about the possible side effects of a drug.^{1 4} They may place different interpretations on information about likely risks, and they may question the benefits of taking a drug when they are not greatly concerned by the medical "problem" that the treatment is meant to solve. They may well rate the practicalities of how to take a drug higher than . . . [Full text of this article]

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Rapid Responses:

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What Irish Patients Want to Know About Their Medicines?

Stephen Byrne, et al.
bmj.com, 23 Oct 2003 [Full text]

Online poll

Find out more here>> and here>>