Adverse drug reactions in patients in an Iranian department of internal medicine.
OBJECTIVE
Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are a major cause of hospital admission and inpatient morbidity. The department of internal medicine is not an exception to this issue. This study was performed to determine the nature and frequency of ADRs in an internal medicine ward in Iran.


METHODS
This survey was a prospective observational study based on admissions of 400 patients to the internal medicine ward over a 15-week period. Patients were intensively followed in order to assess any ADR as a cause of admission or occurring during hospitalization. Any suspicious ADR was confirmed by a pharmacist/pharmacologist.


RESULTS
There were 47 patients of 400 patients (11.75%) that experienced at least one ADR. ADR leading to the admission was seen in seven cases (1.75%) and in 40 (10%) it occurred during hospitalization. ADRs were identified as preventable reactions in 50% of cases and as predictable in 94.3%. The severity of 18.6% of the ADRs was identified as mild, 62.9% as moderate, 14.3% as severe and 4.3% as lethal. Gastrointestinal system disorders (44.3%) represented the most frequent ADRs. The therapeutic groups that most commonly associated with suspected ADRs were antineoplastic, immunosuppressive and medicines used in palliative care (54.8%).


CONCLUSIONS
ADRs are common among hospitalized patients in department of internal medicine and can be severe and even lethal. Since most ADRs occurred during hospitalization in studied patients and half of them were preventable, prevention strategies should be considered in hospitals. Also, our findings confirmed the role of hospital pharmacists in the reducing ADRs.
Pourseyed
Sara
S
Immunology, Asthma and Allergy Research Institute, Children Medical Center, Medical Sciences/University of Tehran, Tehran, IR Iran.
Fattahi
Fatemeh
F
Pourpak
Zahra
Z
Gholami
Keirollah
K
Shariatpanahi
Seyed Shamsa
SS
Moin
Athar
A
Kazemnejad
Anoushirvan
A
Moin
Mostafa
M
D000328:Adult; D016907:Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting Systems; D000368:Aged; D064420:Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006748:Hospital Departments; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies