Adverse drug reactions with antidepressants drugs: Significance of pharmacovigilance in depression pharmacotherapy

Abstract

Depression is a major public health psychiatric problem that affects people all over the world, with a high lifetime incidence and severe disability. Depending on the severity and pattern of depression episodes over time, antidepressant (ADs) medication may be advised as one of the therapeutic methods. On the other hand, ADs medication may have adverse drug reactions (ADRs). ADRs reduce people's quality of life, which leads to poor adherence to ADs, longer hospital stays, higher healthcare costs, poor therapeutic outcomes, physical morbidity, stigma and also death in the worst-case scenario. Psychiatrists must be familiar with the procedures for identifying and reporting ADRs, especially those that are new or unknown. Pharmacovigilance is a medical discipline based on these processes. Pharmacovigilance is not a "specialist" activity; it is a requirement for all those involved in the care of patients on medications, including doctors, nurses, and pharmacists and paramedical staff. This narrative review paper provides an overview of depression, ADs, Antidepressant-related ADRs, and the significance of pharmacovigilance. Articles were found using PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, MEDLINE and DergiPark databases. Firstly, we examined the title, then the abstract and finally the entire study. Depression appears to be associated with an increased risk of developing ADRs. Various ADRs are associated with ADs as per previously published literature. This review emphasizes the implementation of the pharmacovigilance system and the importance of monitoring ADRs in psychiatric depressive patients regularly by all healthcare professionals.