Pharmacovigilance and use of online health information.

Health-related searches are frequently performed on the internet, and 24% of internet users look for information about drug safety or recalls (http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/HealthTopics/Summary-of-Findings/Food-safety.aspx). Information influences decision making and behavior, and online information is no different [1]. Internet health information could cause patients to modify their adherence to prescribed therapy or to other decisions 2 and 3 that might contribute to an adverse drug reaction (ADR), the object of study of pharmacovigilance. Because of this potentially important source of health information, we suggest that specific questions should be included in ADR forms to gather information on whether patients used online resources in deciding which drugs to take and in which combinations.