The Consumers' Association said on June 29 that patient information leaflets confuse and alarm patients, after carrying out a survey. It called for the leaflets to be made easier to read and for changes to the European Directive that requires the leaflets to be produced.
In particular the CA criticised PILs for including long lists of side effects with no clear explanation of their likelihood, for excessive use of technical and medical jargon and for including vague, incomplete and, sometimes, contradictory statements.
Patients, general medical practitioners and pharmacists had raised similar concerns.
Accepting that PILs were not perfect, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry said that they were controlled by law. PILs also had to be acceptable to the Medicines Control Agency.
Dr Trevor Jones (director-general, ABPI) said: "The industry would like to be able to provide more relevant information to patients, but is currently restricted from doing so, while having to include a whole range of technical information."