Table 4 Key themes raised in the free-text section of the MYMEDS questionnaire
Theme | Details |
|---|---|
Side effects | Mostly relating to experiencing specific side effects, suspecting that they were caused by one or more medicines, or concern about possible side effects (e.g. headaches, anxiety, cold hands, panic attacks, dizziness, cramps, bruising, feeling tired, breathlessness) |
Pharmaceutical form | Issues around different formulations, generics, size of tablets, dissolving tablets, and desire for easier-to-swallow formulations |
Administration | Issues around the time of the day to take medicines, taking medicines together, whether ‘twice a day’ mean 12 h apart |
Medicines interactions | Queries about drug–drug and drug–food/drink interactions, and concerns about taking too many medicines for the same thing (e.g. too many blood pressure-lowering medicines) |
Rationale for medicines | Questions on why to take certain medicines when key parameters were within the target range (e.g. why take hypertension medication when blood pressure is well controlled, why take a statin when blood cholesterol is low) |
Service issues | In particular, reporting service problems (e.g. with obtaining repeat prescriptions) |
Requests for further information | In particular, more information about side effects, or about the length of time on medicines (e.g. how long time to take a high-dose statin, when to stop a second antiplatelet, extending dual antiplatelet therapy) |
Role of carer | Notes on the roles of their carers in taking medicines (e.g. my family support me, my daughter sorts out my medicines) |