ORIGINAL PAPER Adverse effects of antipsychotic drugs: survey of doctors’ versus patients’ perspective Michela Nose ` • Maria Angela Mazzi • Eleonora Esposito • Marco Bianchini • Paola Petrosemolo • Giovanni Ostuzzi • Michele Tansella • Corrado Barbui Received: 17 May 2010 / Accepted: 4 November 2010 Ó Springer-Verlag 2010 Abstract Aims Almost no data are available on whether patients and doctors have similar or dissimilar opinions on the presence and level of distress due to antipsychotic adverse effects. The aim of this survey is to compare doctors’ versus patients’ perspective on the presence and level of distress due to antipsychotic adverse effects in a sample of patients under the care of the South-Verona mental health services. Methods All patients exposed to antipsychotic drugs during a census period of 6 months were identified. For each included subject, socio-demographic, clinical and treatment data were extracted. Patients’ perspective on antipsychotic adverse effects was measured by means of the Liverpool University Neuroleptic Side Effect Rating Scale (LUNSERS). The LUNSERS was similarly employed to measure doctors’ perspective on antipsychotic adverse effects. Results During the recruitment period, 243 patients tak- ing antipsychotic drugs were enrolled. The correlation between the total LUNSERS score reported by patients and doctors was very low (correlation coefficient 0.22, 95% confidence interval 0.15–0.30). On average, patients per- ceived more adverse effects and with a significant higher distress than doctors. Multivariate analyses found no fac- tors simultaneously associated with both patient and doctor ratings of adverse effects. Conclusion Our study suggests that doctors, researchers and health care providers should increasingly consider patient and doctor perspectives as two complementary dimensions that may provide different insights in the evaluation of antipsychotic drugs. Integrating different points of view may represent a way to develop a better therapeutic alliance that might decrease the likelihood of nonadherence. Keywords Antipsychotic Á Tolerability Á Side effect Á Drug epidemiology Introduction Recognizing and taking action on adverse effects is con- sidered a crucial aspect of medication management for all drugs. As in clinical practice adverse effects may be observed from the perspective of patients or doctors, an important question is whether patients and doctors have similar or dissimilar opinions on the presence and level of distress due to adverse effects [10, 22]. Some studies suggested that patients’ opinion may not always agree with those of doctors on many aspects [4, 17], and this may be particularly relevant for patients with mental disorders exposed to antipsychotic (AP) drugs, as these drugs are associated with a wide range of potential adverse effects, require long-term chronic use, and are prescribed to man- age clinical conditions that may not always be fully rec- ognized by patients [6, 15, 23]. Lack of agreement between patients and doctors may have negative consequences in terms of therapeutic rela- tionship and alliance, and this may affect patient outcomes. A recent study showed that the quality of relationships between patients and doctors appeared to be an important M. Nose `(&) Á M. A. Mazzi Á E. Esposito Á M. Bianchini Á P. Petrosemolo Á G. Ostuzzi Á M. Tansella Á C. Barbui Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Section of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology, University of Verona, Policlinico GB Rossi, 37134 Verona, Italy e-mail: michela.nose@univr.it 123 Soc Psychiat Epidemiol DOI 10.1007/s00127-010-0320-1