title: [Presence of excipients in pharmaceutical products in 3 sources of therapeutic information].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the level of agreement between information compiled from the Vademecum, the Pharmaceutical Catalogue and instruction leaflets on the four excipients most commonly used to prepare pharmaceutical products (saccharin, saccharose, lactose and ethanol).
  
  
  METHODS
  Descriptive study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Primary care.
  
  
  METHODS
  658 orally administered preparations of pharmaceutical products were chosen. Their composition formulas in the Vademecum, Pharmaceutical Catalogue and instruction leaflets were compared with a theoretical model constructed as the most reliable source of information on excipients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Saccharin and saccharose were the most frequently described and quantified excipients, and lactose the least. Saccharin was quantified in 97.3% of cases in which it was used as an excipient, saccharose in 95%, ethanol in 91.4% and lactose in 17.5%. Saccharin is also the excipient which coincided most in the three sources examined, followed by saccharose, lactose and ethanol. The Vademecum did not state the presence of saccharose in 62% of preparations and of lactose in 39.7%. Instruction leaflets were the source with the lowest rate of failing to state the excipients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Saccharose and lactose are excipients frequently omitted from the composition of orally taken pharmaceutical products in the Vademecum. Instruction leaflets provide the most reliable source out of the three analysed. The need to make available for doctors simple texts, contributing more reliable and up-to-date information, is underlined.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Salud Universitario La Paz, Unidad Docente de Medicina Familiar y Comunitaria, Badajoz.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Altimiras
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nieto-Hernández
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Buitrago
mesh_terms: D002380:Catalogs, Drug as Topic; D002626:Chemistry, Pharmaceutical; D004348:Drug Labeling / Q000592:standards*; D000431:Ethanol; D005079:Excipients / Q000737:chemistry*; D007785:Lactose; D010602:Pharmacopoeias as Topic / Q000592:standards*; D012439:Saccharin; D013030:Spain; D013395:Sucrose
chemical_list: D005079:Excipients; D000431:Ethanol; D013395:Sucrose; D012439:Saccharin; D007785:Lactose
vernacular_title: Presencia de excipientes en especialidades farmacéuticas en tres fuentes de información terapéutica.