Greater efforts are needed to encourage patients to report adverse drug reactions

In a review of published studies addressing patients' perceptions and factors influencing their reporting of adverse drug reactions, most patients were not aware of reporting systems and others were confused about reporting.

For those patients who did report their experiences with adverse drug reactions, the main motivation was to prevent similar suffering in other patients.

The British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology review included 21 studies published between 2008 and 2014.

"Since patients have first hand experience of drug use, adverse drug reaction reports from patients may provide different information on suspected adverse drug reactions and drug types, as well as provide a broader picture of adverse drug reactions and their impact on individual daily activities, as compared with reports from health care professionals," said lead author Dr. Rania Dweik.