Drug package inserts and the adequacy of patient's drug information

Objective To investigate the adequacy of the content and format of the patient inform ation section in package inserts of commonly prescribed drugs at the intern al medicine service of a school hospital. Methods Forty eight package inserts were collected from six pharmacies of the city of Porto Alegre in June 1998. The presence of mandatory notification and ot her information required by Brazilian laws that regulate inserts content wa s examined. Results No one package inserts contained all the notification required by law Warni ngs about medication storage and expiration date were the most frequently i nformation found in package inserts analyzed Conclusion Important information for the drug user was not presented in package insert s analyzed, limiting the purpose of inserts as an instrument for patient ed ucation.