Adverse drug reactions
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
NDMA finds it "difficult to detect from the published report" in the April 15 Journal of the American Medical Association of the incidence of ADRs in hospitalized patients "the scope and the extent of reported OTC usage by the study population." Widespread lay media coverage of the study has cited ADRs both from Rx and OTC drugs, although the JAMA article does not mention OTC drugs. The study, a meta-analysis of 39 prospective studies from U.S. hospitals, was designed to estimate the incidence of serious and fatal ADRs in hospital patients, both those already registered as in-patients and those who were admitted after presenting with suspected drug-related ADRs. The analysis by Jason Lazarou, University of Toronto, et al., excluded errors in drug administration, noncompliance, overdose, drug abuse, therapeutic failures and "possible" ADRs. Lazarou et al. conclude the incidence of ADRs is "extremely high" and represents "an important clinical issue"...