Doctors and patients misunder- stand each other when relevant information is not exchanged

Prescribing decisions are influenced by doctors' perceptions of patients' expectations, but there is doubt about the accuracy of these perceptions. On p 484 Britten et al describe an in-depth study of general practice consultations in which they interviewed patients before and after their consultations and compared patients' accounts with recordings of the consultations and doctors' accounts of what had happened. All the misunderstandings were associated with lack of patients' participation in the consultation in terms of the voicing of expectations and preferences or the voicing of responses to doctors' decisions and actions. Many were based on inaccurate guesses and assumptions. In particular doctors seemed unaware of the relevance of patients' ideas about medicines for successful prescribing.

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Relevant Article

Misunderstandings in prescribing decisions in general practice: qualitative study

Nicky Britten, Fiona A Stevenson, Christine A Barry, Nick Barber, and Colin P Bradley
BMJ 2000 320: 484-488. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]