The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 273 No 7311 p201
7 August 2004

Valuable insight for those interested in explaining and understanding risk, and essential for researchers

‘Risk, communication and health psychology’, by Dianne C. Berry. Pp x+173. Price £19.99. Maidenhead: Open University Press; 2004. ISBN 0 335 21351 0

Miscommunication of risk can have a dramatic impact on society. In 1995, when the Committee on Safety of Medicines warned that third generation oral contraceptive pills doubled the risk of thromboses compared with second generation pills, the consequence was a decrease in pill use, with an associated increased pregnancy and termination rate. This short book, part of a health psychology series, covers areas such as defining and explaining risk, emotional and cognitive issues around understanding risk, effectiveness of patient information leaflets, ethical issues and health information. Drug issues figure prominently in the text including short sections on medicines information, such as over-the-counter, herbal and homoeopathic medicines.

Also included is a section on quantifying and communicating the prevalence of side effects. Risk scales are discussed as an aid to putting risk in context. The visual depictions of risk are somewhat disappointing compared with the BMJ series (1993) and some of the text is short on examples and overly immersed in psychology discourse. The details of how to work out numbers needed to treat and odds ratios are not included.

However the majority of the book will be of interest to pharmacists who wish to delve further into understanding the challenging task of explaining risk to patients. This is an essential text for those undertaking research in this field.


Rob Shulman

Rob Shulman is an ICU pharmacist at University College London Hospitals and is studying for a doctorate in healthcare pharmacy at King's College London