Profession
Doctors don't always give enough information about new prescriptions
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Oct. 16, 2006
Doctors frequently neglect to tell patients important information about newly prescribed medications, according to a Sept. 25 Archives of Internal Medicine study.
"Even though doctors prescribing new medications should tell patients the name of the drug, why the patient is getting it, how to take it and potential adverse effects, we're just not seeing this happen consistently," said Derjung M. Tarn, MD, PhD, the study's lead author and assistant clinical professor of family medicine at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine.
Researchers drew their conclusion based on audiotapes of 185 outpatient encounters with 16 family physicians, 18 internists and 11 cardiologists in Sacramento, Calif. According to the study, doctors explained that the purpose of a new drug the vast majority of the time and told patients the drug's name three times out of four. But physicians failed to talk about potential side effects two-thirds of the time, and only instructed patients about dosage, frequency and timing a little more than half the time.
Failing to reliably give patients the details about new drugs can lead to patient administration errors and noncompliance, the study said.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2006/10/16/prbf1016.htm.
