How Much Information About Adverse Effects of Medication Do Patients Want From Physicians?

Abstract
PRACTICING physicians face continually the problem of how much detail concerning risk for adverse effects of prescribed medication they should provide patients. The prevalence of adverse side effects of medication has received increasing attention in recent years.1,2 To explain to patients, for each medication prescribed, every possible adverse effect would clearly be a task of unacceptable time consumption and questionable advisability. How, then, is the physician to choose which facts to give?