アブストラクト | (1) Although patients experience the adverse effects of drugs, they are rarely allowed to report adverse effects directly to their national pharmacovigilance system; (2) An analysis of direct patient reporting to pharmacovigilance centres, and surveys of patient reporting, show that patients mention some adverse effects previously overlooked by healthcare professionals; (3) Patients' reports of adverse effects can have strong causal links and contain as much information as healthcare professionals' reports; (4) Patients do not use the same vocabulary as healthcare professionals, making it more time-consuming for pharmacists and physicians to classify their reports using existing analytical tools; (5) In practice, patients will ultimately benefit from the increased knowledge concerning adverse effects if healthcare authorities allow them to participate directly in pharmacovigilance. |