Healthy Skepticism Library item: 2271
Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.
Publication type: news
Mitchell S.
Study warns of drug effects
The Australian Newspaper 2005 Aug 19
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16310778%5E2702,00.html
Keywords:
HealthConnect ADR adverse TGA
Notes:
Ralph Faggotter’s Comments: How do we know what the nature and incidence of adverse drug reactions is? The short answer is that we don’t because adverse drug reactions are rarely reported. My estimate is that, in Australia, where reporting by doctors is purely voluntary, less than 1% get of ADRs get reported. To report means to lose time. Time is money. Therefore reporting does not occur. The same probably applies in other counrties where there is no effective system in place to encourage reporting.
In this article there is a proposal to link all doctors’ computers to a centralized database to collect ADRs which are recorded on electronic health records. This will soon happen in Australia under ‘HealthConnect’.
The concept of ‘personal privacy’ is rapidly becoming anachronistic.
Full text: Study warns of drug effects
Selina Mitchell
August 19, 2005
WORRYING side effects from drugs are far more common than previously thought, prompting calls for better care to be taken by doctors when prescribing medicine.
While side effects are mostly anticipated, new research suggests the frequency and intensity of unintended consequences is underestimated. Ten million adverse reactions to prescription medicines are reported by patients to their GPs every year.
Most are expected side effects, not mistakes by doctors, a University of Sydney study has found. But the study suggests health experts “grossly underestimated” the frequency of side effects from drugs.
These range from nausea and dizziness through to potentially fatal bleeding disorders, chief researcher Graeme Miller said yesterday. Professor Miller said doctors should think twice before prescribing drugs for people that they know are at risk of side effects.
In addition, a comprehensive reporting system should be established to track all bad reactions to drugs, not just dangerous or unusual reactions, as was the current situation, he said. “The danger is that not enough consideration is given to the balance between the risks and benefits of a medication.”
Up to 20per cent of hospital admissions were related to adverse drug reactions, the chairman of the Australian Pharmaceutical Advisory Council, John Aloizos, said. “It is very important to address this situation. Side effects range in degrees of seriousness, but even the mildest reaction is terrible if you are the person who is experiencing it,” he said.
The regulator of drugs in Australia, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, in conjunction with the independent expert advisory committee, is already monitoring side effects of medicines.
“(These committees) receive and welcome reporting of all side effects, regardless of seriousness, to any medicine from all health professionals, including general practitioners,” a TGA spokesman said.
One program includes a computer alert system that would pass examples of side effects back to a central database. This would help researchers study what was happening.
Reports of side effects would be reviewed and included in a database and a bulletin sent to health professionals every two months.
Professor Miller’s as yet unpublished research was part of a study conducted in 2003-04 for the Health Department, which wanted baseline data to track the impact of the planned electronic health records program, HealthConnect.
