ADR Guide On Risk Factors
Adverse Drug Reaction Guide
Commonly abbreviated as ABR or ABE (Adverse Drug Event), this phenomenon is expletive of the harmful side effects of any prescribed drug or medicine. The medical term for the study of adverse drugs reactions or ADRs is called Pharmacovigilance (PV). The less dangerous consequences include hair fall or headaches and fever. However there are more serious ramifications such as strokes and liver and kidney damage or at times, suicidal tendencies and death.
There can be different causes for this including the complete failure of the therapy. The reasons can also be genetic or co morbid disease conditions. This alters the drug metabolism in the body and increases the chances of drug interactions. Most of the ADRs are caused by nonimmunologic etiologies; which means that they can be predicted. However there are some that are immunologic and can be really strange.
In the US, every year more than 100,000 people die due to adverse drugs reactions and at least three percent of the patients in a hospital are there because of this phenomenon. The worst part is that 6-15% of these people suffer from the serious consequences. Don’t be misled by the small percentage. We’re talking about more than two million people here.
Even common drugs like paracetamol can cause liver failure. Contraceptive pills contain estrogen and they cause blood clots and discoloration. Then there is the famous example of aspirin which causes bleeding in the intestines. Simple antibiotics can cause either temporary or permanent deafness and can sometimes result in kidney damage. Many anti depressants are known to cause erectile dysfunctions.
There are several international bodies that monitor adverse drugs reactions and try and ensure their safety. The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) is the authority in the US while the WHO has the Uppsala Monitoring Centre. It is important to know about ADR and report its cases because these cases can be avoided with care and the last thing anybody would want is to die on medication.
