Medication leaflet Information about side effects confuses patients

Study: leaflets on side effects of drugs confuse patients

A recent study has shown that the descriptions of side effects in leaflets of medicines for patients are often incomprehensible. And that although according to the researchers even a small addition could help.

Read the package leaflet correctly

Regardless of whether painkillers, cholesterol or antihypertensives: Before taking any medication, the leaflet should always be read correctly in order to find out more about the correct intake and possible side effects. But research has shown that this drug information leaks in many patients to uncertainty. Even some doctors are increasingly overwhelmed by it. But even a small addition to the leaflets could help, as a study shows now.

Before taking a drug, you should always read the leaflet to learn especially about the correct intake and possible side effects. But the descriptions are often incomprehensible to patients. (Image: Andrzej Tokarski / fotolia.com)

Important information about proper medication

The leaflet of medications contains important information about proper intake and possible side effects.

However, many patients can not properly assess this information because comparative information is lacking on how often adverse symptoms that are listed as side effects occur with and without the use of drugs.

However, such comparative information is currently not available on instruction leaflets in Germany or other European countries, reports the Max Planck Institute for Human Development (MPIB) in Berlin in a statement.

An online study by the MPIB and the University of Hamburg with around 400 lay people now showed that even a small addition to the leaflets could contribute to a better understanding.

The study results were published in the journal "PLOS ONE".

Even doctors and pharmacists are mistaken

"Few people are aware that there must be no causal connection between the symptoms listed as side effects and the use of drugs," says first author Viktoria Mühlbauer, pharmacist and doctoral student at the University of Hamburg.

"An early study shows that even doctors and pharmacists mistakenly think that the listed side effects in the stated frequency are caused by the respective drug," said the expert.

The aim of the study with 392 participants was to investigate whether alternative package leaflets supplemented with comparative information reduce misinterpretations.

For this, the scientists each showed the subjects one of four package inserts, all of which listed the same four symptoms (side effects).

Three of the four leaflets were alternative versions, which listed the corresponding frequency of symptoms both with and without medication and also provided explanations for the causality between the onset of symptoms and the medication.

The fourth leaflet used in the study was the standard leaflet currently in use. This was - as is currently the case - only information on the frequency of symptoms with medication.

Endangering patient and drug safety

In the subsequent survey, those who had read an alternative leaflet above all scored points.

While only two to three percent of participants were able to correctly answer questions about causal frequency with the standard leaflet, up to 82 percent were in alternative formats.

The alternative instruction leaflets thus resulted in fewer misinterpretations.

"The continuing use of information formats in our healthcare system that confuse patients and practicing physicians is a total problem that jeopardizes patient and drug safety," says senior author Odette Wegwarth, research associate at the Adaptive Rationality Research Unit at MPIB.

In the meantime, there would be an in-depth study on which information formats support patients and doctors in understanding the benefits and harms of medical interventions and which do not.

"What we need to realize these insights in reality is the will and effort of all those involved in the health care system," says Wegwarth. (Ad)