4.4 Satisfaction with information about AEDs
With regard to satisfaction with information about AEDs, the results of this study were consistent with those of Fogg et al. (2012) study that evaluated the effect of pharmacist-led epilepsy consultation on patients’ satisfaction with information received about epilepsy medications, that increased the overall satisfaction from 11 to 13 (P- value= 0.009) (26).
The increase in satisfaction in this study was also associated with a significant increase in the level of adherence. Not only adherence, but also safety and QoL was associated with satisfaction. At follow-up, an inverse relationship was found between satisfaction and safety, this means that when satisfaction with information about AEDs increased, it led to a lower side effects score indicating better understanding of drugs side effects. On the other hand, a direct relationship between satisfaction and QoL indicates that better understanding about the medication effects, either the wanted or unwanted (side effects), led to a higher QoL score.
In this study, the control group also experienced a statistically significant increase in the level of satisfaction at follow up, although no new information was provided to patients or caregivers during the study period, this may be due to social desirability bias as the clinical pharmacist frequently contacted the caregiver to receive relevant study information.