Excessive medical information increase in package inserts.

Objectives: Package inserts are the most frequent source of patient information about medicines aside from doctors and pharmacists.

Materials And Methods: A representative selection of 271 German package inserts available in 2005 was investigated, using 152 validated quality criteria and by measuring 242 further values.

Results: A significant increase in package insert texts over recent years was found; standing at an average of 2,005 words.