Publication: Development and validation of the General Attitude towards Medication Questionnaire (GAMQ)

 

Some people have great trust in medication while others are concerned about their side effects or may be reluctant to use medication. Such attitudes towards medication may affect treatment outcomes and adherence. This could occur through mechanisms such as placebo and nocebo effects.

Till date, questionnaires were lacking that assess both negative and positive attitudes towards medication in general. Such a scale is important to obtain a more balanced and comprehensive understanding of how attitudes towards medication predict treatment outcomes and adherence than is possible to date. Therefore, Kaya Peerdeman, Judith Tekampe, Henriët van Middendorp, Antoinette van Laarhoven, Ralph Rippe, Madelon Peters, and Andrea Evers developed and validated the General Attitude towards Medication Questionnaire (GAMQ).

The newly developed GAMQ is a brief questionnaire consisting of 12 items that can be captured in three subscales: ‘Trust in medication’, ‘Concerns about medication’, and ‘Reluctance to use medication’.  The qualities of the questionnaire were found to be satisfactory upon examinations in 2 groups of people from the general population, a group of patients with rheumatoid arthritis, and a group of patients with atopic eczema.

As such, the GAMQ may be an informative measure for predicting treatment outcomes and adherence, as well as placebo and nocebo effects in diverse patient and general samples.

Read the full scientific article: https://bmcpsychology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40359-024-02108-7