Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Do we believe that?
Some drugs have a low therapeutic ratio Some drugs are dangerous in acute poisoning but not when used therapeutically Some adverse effects occur after a delay or after stopping
BAD
GOOD
Some adverse effects can be predicted if you know the pharmacology (Type A); some are not (Type B)
Is it effective ? What are the chances of adverse effect ? Are there features in this patient which affect choice eg other drugs, organ failure, aged Tailoring the dose Considering duration of treatment
The Risks when prescribing drugs with a low therapeutic ratio are greatly increased if 1. Pharmacokinetic process is complicated eg high hepatic extraction, or zero order elimination 2. Wide interindividual variation in kinetics and / or response 3. Pharmacokinetics sensitive to drug interaction, disease or ageing
Adverse drug reactions An ADR is any unwanted effect resulting from a drugs use in treatment.
Epidemiology 4% of hospital admissions 1 in 1000 deaths in medical wards 10 to 20 % of in-patients 5% of patients in general practice
More frequent in elderly: erratic drug taking multiple pathology altered pharmacokinetics increased sensitivity of CNS and CVS
Occur in circumstances related to drugs pharmacology, predisposing factors in the patient and care taken in choosing the drug and the dose.
Measuring danger
MHRA activity through Yellow card reporting and prescription monitoring Huge increase in reports over recent years
Some websites
www.yellowcard.gov.uk http://medicines.mhra.gov.uk www.dsru.org http://eis.bris.ac.uk/~pmcjcr/Drug%20Safet y.pdf