Erskine D, Balestrini A, Clarbour J, Steele J, Gazzard B; International Conference on AIDS.
Int Conf AIDS. 1990 Jun 20-23; 6: 299 (abstract no. S.D.838).
Westminster Hospital, London, England
OBJECTIVE: To create a monitoring scheme to record and assess all potential adverse drug reactions (ADR) in HIV positive patients. METHODS: A voluntary reporting scheme by doctors and nursing staff was coordinated by the AIDS pharmacist who followed up reports to determine temporal relationships between the adverse event and the drug. The pharmacist reported back to the staff and made an independent classification of the likelihood that the drug was involved in an ADR. Pharmacy records were searched to ascertain how many patients were taking a particular therapy at the time an ADR was reported. A synopsis of these findings was reported at regular research meetings. RESULTS: Reporting patterns indicated that whilst there was a study baseline reporting level, of 2 per week this increased to more than 10 per week for a month after the pharmacist presented each synopsis. Frequent ADR's were reported for a number of drugs. Four of 104 patients taking Fansidar developed the Stevens Johnson syndrome; 5 of 40 taking megestrol developed impotence and 4 of 55 patients receiving foscarnet developed penile ulceration. Unusual reports include a case of thrombocytopenia with pyrimethamine and severe renal toxicity with acyclovir. CONCLUSION: To be successful, voluntary ADR reporting schemes require regular feedback to the doctor, both individually and in a group setting. It would seem that although common ADR's are not consistently reported, a voluntary scheme does provide a useful early warning system for little known side effects and quickly identifies ADR's of surprisingly high frequency.
Publication Types:
Keywords:
- Evaluation Studies
- Humans
- Male
- Pharmaceutical Preparations
- Pharmacies
- Pharmacists
- Pharmacy Service, Hospital
- Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee
- Physicians
- adverse effects
- drug therapy
- methods
- organization & administration
- toxicity
Other ID:
UI: 102192040
From Meeting Abstracts