Interviews with elderly patients about side effects

Fifty older persons were interviewed about their medicines, side effects, and their responses to statements describing side effects. Participants were taking nearly 4 drugs each and knew what those medicines were and why they were taking them. Participants knew much less about the potential side effects and almost nothing about potential drug interactions. They wanted to know all the side effects, and indicated that if their doctors told them about all the side effects, they would still follow the doctors' prescription. However, fewer than 1 in 3 of their doctors were doing so. Responses to hypothetical statements about a high blood pressure medication showed that positive statements were more reassuring than negative statements. Responses to statements about side effects were more driven by the nature of the side effect than by its likelihood. Overall, participants did not find side-effect information strongly discouraging.