Doctor-patient communication and pressure under scrutiny

Two US surveys into doctor-patient relationships have found that "doctors are doing a poor job at communicating critical information about the medications they prescribe," according to researchers at the University of California Los Angeles, but that most doctors are also under pressure from parents to prescribe behavioral drugs to children in order to boost academic performance.

The first survey was carried out by audiotaping 185 patient visits to 16 family physicians, 18 internists and 11 cardiologists in Sacramento, California, over an 11-month period. The data showed that doctors explained the purpose of a new medication to patients 87% of the time. However, they named the product to patients in 74% of cases, while discussions of potential adverse effects were restricted to 35% of occasions.

Patients were only told by their physician how long a drug treatment course should last in 34% of cases, 55% were told how many tablets to take. Information on how often or when patients should take a dose was provided in 58% of instances.