| Abstrakt: |
The study addressed issues surrounding the patient’s recognition of whether a symptom is drug- or disease-related. Studies have demonstrated that the information the lay population has about illness can be organized into five categories: identity (symptoms and label), cause, time course, consequences, and cure. These elements, termed illness representations or prototypes, facilitate patient interpretation and response to symptoms as they occur. Theoretically, patients may have such a framework for interpretation of symptoms that they considered adverse drug reactions. The purpose of this study was to explore whether an adverse drug reaction (ADR) prototype exists. A self-administered questionnaire was used to elicit the subject’s perceptions and awareness of adverse drug reactions. Subjects were also asked to make judgments about severity of ADRs and frequency of particular symptoms as drug-related effects. The study population was a sample of 338 adults visiting a family practice clinic over a four-week period. A majority of the respondents reported personal experience of an ADR and described the event with information which was consistent with the five categories. Subjects who reported ADR experience believed drug reactions occur more frequently and are less severe than those without such experience. Results also indicated that people have knowledge about ADR symptoms that is substantially accurate, and may use a prototype to facilitate identification of symptoms as an adverse effect. |
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