Your views on medication side effects and how they should be reported to improve patient safety

[MaddieHU]

You may remember some time ago, HealthUnlocked and the University of Manchester conducted research into medication side effects and the perceptions around reporting them. We found some very interesting insights:

- Over 95% of people surveyed took regular medication and 87% had experienced a side effect that they believed was caused by their medication. Where people had experienced side effects, people stopped taking their medication in 59% of cases. In 10% of cases, the reaction was severe enough to cause them to be admitted to hospital as a result.

- Of those people who had experienced a side effect of medication, over 90% had reported this to someone else, most commonly their GP (79%), a pharmacist (17%), or to a family member or friend. However, few (3%) had reported this to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA), the regulatory agency responsible for monitoring drug safety in the UK.

- People varied in their level of understanding about the laws, regulations and systems for monitoring medication safety in the UK. Awareness of the MHRA’s ‘Yellow Card’ scheme for reporting drug side effects was low, with over 70% of people reporting little or no knowledge of the MHRA or the scheme.

- We asked survey respondents whether they would be happy if the MHRA or researchers used content posted on HealthUnlocked communities to monitor side effects - 94% of people agreed in each case.

This feedback has given us valuable insight into the reporting of medication side effects and how this could be improved in the future.

The next stage of the research is to hold a series of face-to-face focus groups with people to explore better ways of reporting medication side effects, making use of online health communities on HealthUnlocked. If you live in or around Manchester and are interested in taking part, click this link to see the details: patientsafety.manchester.ac...

If you have any questions about this research, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at [e-mail].

Thank you!

HealthUnlocked and The University of Manchester

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I believe we should be able to send our side effects to an independent website. I have had bad experiences to antindepressants and when I get Ill, the docs offer me the same things I already told them I had a bad reaction to, then they get flustered and prescribe anything because of the time limit in appointments, I feel they don't record the side effects

One of the worst situations ever was being given phenergan to help me sleep and it making me hyper active and not be able to sleep. The nurse literally shouted at me when I was saying I hadn't slept and was wide awake. She wrote in my notes I was a benzo seeker.

She didn't even ask what I had been prescribed.

They don't record side effects and that's a major loss on finding out true figures of adverse side effects

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Also quetiapine, I have been saying since December it's not working and they expect me to take it til March. A database needs to be made so that anyone who is prescribed can report sideceffects, it's the only way to find out what meds HV side effects patterns