Chapter 8
Drug information on the Internet

Overview
Research shows that around 50% of patients fail to comply with the medication they are prescribed. The reasons for this are many, but a common recommendation for increasing compliance is to provide patients with more information about the drugs that are being prescribed. Obviously, the best forum for this is in the doctor-patient consultation, but if additional printed information is required, the Internet is the obvious place to look.

Through the Internet health consumers (as well as health professionals) can find information on virtually all prescription drugs, including details of any reported adverse effects and usage instructions. This chapter will introduce you to best Web sources for this type of information. In addition to this we look at the rise of online pharmacies and provide some practical guidelines about using these services.

Key topics covered in this chapter