Sensory Qualities of the Medicines: From Problems to Proposals

The text reviews the studies conducted on the sensory qualities of the medicines. It considers medicine as a product, therefore, as a project object of which to examine its tertiary qualities—the experienced object and, therefore evaluates its visual (e.g., color, shape, etc.), gustatory (e.g., bitter, sweet, pleasant, unpleasant, etc.), the qualities of the surface (e.g., smooth, rough, etc.), its consistency, etc., together with the connotations that these induce, noting the problems, the recognition of visual impairment and the incidence that these have on adherence to treatment and correct intake. Compare the sensory characteristics of the medicine with the formal/chromatic characteristics of the tablets in pharmaceutical production. It concludes by noting how the research carried out on the sensory characteristics the medicines are limited to studying these characteristics separately, not considering the interaction between them and the perceptual hierarchies, the prevalence that one can hold over the others. Very few studies address the issue of accessibility for people with sensory disabilities, the latter are addressed in the medicine packages by providing Braille text, but no indication allows communication and discrimination of the tablet for people with visual impairments.