Clinical guidelines are good because "it helps to increase the proper use of medicines", but their impact on patients is not always taken into account, concludes this study from the University of Kent (Canterbury, UK) . The study reveals, in the journal Health and Social Care in the community, that patients want more information about their medications and also want to have a say in the products prescribed.
Professor Janet Krska, an expert in pharmacology, conducts her research on the heaviness of long-term drug use in patients. With her team and for this study, she has developed a questionnaire, the “Living with Medicines Questionnaire” or LMQ, which makes it possible to assess the impact of treatments on quality of life. The questionnaire covers 8 themes, the relationship with the attending physician, the main interferences of the treatments with daily life, the lack of therapeutic efficacy, the side and undesirable effects, the general observations, the cost and the lack of autonomy. Analysis of data from 684 respondents shows that:
- P atients who take the greatest number of drugs who are also those who experience the most adverse effects are also those who would like to be better informed ;
- Surprisingly, older patients rate the use of regular medications less burdensome than younger patients, even though they use more medications;
- more than a quarter of the users questioned wanted to obtain more information about their medicines and to have more say in the medicines prescribed;
- a similar proportion are concerned about drug prices;
- over 50% are concerned about long-term side effects;
- about 11% say they are not satisfied with the effectiveness of their treatment;
- between 10 and 16% regret that their treatment interferes with certain aspects of their daily life;
- 30% even declare that “their life revolves around drugs”;
- 16% regret that their doctor did not listen to their opinion on medication;
- 11% say their doctor doesn't take concerns about their side effects seriously.
Clinical guidelines are a good thing, concludes Professor Krska, but there is a huge need for education of patients and health professionals. We note indeed and again , a lack of listening to the doctor when prescribing.
