Adverse Drug Reaction Profiles

Abstract

To the Editor.— I want to compliment Kramer et al (242:623, 1979) on their article on adverse drug reactions. They have created an excellent and thorough system. Unfortunately, I do not believe that development of a system is the total answer to a difficult problem. The adverse drug reaction reporting problem is of a more basic nature. As mentioned by the authors, medical inpatients generally have the highest incidence of adverse drug reactions. Major adverse drug reactions frequently result in a hospitalization or occur during hospitalization. The burden for development and maintenance of accurate systems for reporting and creating profiles on adverse drug reactions thus falls on the hospitals. All too frequently hospitals have no real program for reporting adverse drug reactions. Adverse drug reaction profiles are frequently created by asking the patient: Are you allergic to any medication? This often leads to poor, inaccurate, and unsubstantiated adverse drug reaction