According to a 2006 study of physician-patient communication during primary care visits, when physicians prescribed a new medication they:
- did not tell the patient the name of the new medication in 26% of the cases (the other way to look at the data is that the physicians stated the specific medication name for 74% of new prescriptions)
- did not explain the purpose of the medication to patients in 13% of cases (explained the purpose of the medication for 87%)
- did not tell patient about adverse side effects of the medication in 65% of cases
- did not describe to patients how long to take the medication in 66% of cases
- did not tell patients the number of pills to take in 45% of cases
- did not tell patients about medication dosing and timing in 42% of cases
References:
Physician Communication When Prescribing New Medications. Arch Intern Med. 2006;166:1855-1862.
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Recommendation and review posted by G. Smith
