Adverse Drug Reactions

Abstract

DRUG REACTIONS have increased in number and severity because of the increased availability and use of potent drugs. From 1949 to 1958 the yearly deaths ascribed to therapeutic misadventure rose from 160 to 842.¹Thalidomide focused the public and legislative eyes on this problem of adverse drug effects and their combined attention will undoubtedly continue. The delay between recognition and reporting of new drug reactions may be hazardous to other users of the same drug. Disseminating information of drug reactions to the physicians prescribing drugs is a further problem. New approaches to the solutions of these problems have been undertaken in recent years. <h3>Adverse Drug Reaction Programs.—</h3> The American Medical Association (AMA) Council on Drugs established a registry of blood dyscrasias in 1954 and has published several valuable reports.^2,3The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) maintains an adverse-drug-reaction reporting program with approximately 200 hospitals throughout the country as