Medicated hypertensive patients' views and experience of information and communication concerning antihypertensive drugs.

Semi-structured interviews with mostly open-ended questions were conducted with 21 medicated hypertensive patients regarding their views and experience of information and communication with respect to antihypertensive medicines. The results showed that the physician was the person from whom the patients preferred to receive information about medicines. Pharmacy personnel were not regarded as an information resource and few patients had ever talked to them about drugs. The interviewees expressed a desire to receive information at the beginning of the pharmaceutical treatment, especially concerning possible side-effects. Except for this, information concerning the medicine itself was thought to be relatively unimportant, although patients expressed a desire to know whether the drug after a period of time could accumulate in the body or if the internal organs could be affected.