An evaluation of knowledge, attitude and perception about adverse drug reactions and pharmacovigilance among intern doctors at a teaching hospital of Rajasthan

Abstract

Background: Underreporting of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) by clinician is a common problem. As interns will be budding doctors to serve the community, this study was undertaken to evaluate knowledge, attitude and perception about ADR and pharmacovigilance in them. Aims and Objective: To assess knowledge, attitude and perceptions of interns about ADR and pharmacovigilance program and find out possible ways of improving spontaneous reporting. Materials and Methods: A cross-section questionnaire-based study was conducted after approval by ethics committee. Pretested and validated questions consisting of 20 questions (knowledge 12, attitude 4, and perception 4) were administered to 68 interns. The filled questionnaires were collected and analyzed on Microsoft Excel sheet. Result: All interns were well aware of term “pharmacovigilance.” They have an idea to where they should report ADR and about the nearest AMC center but only 3.33% were able to differentiate adverse effect and adverse event. Only 27.94% of the interns were revealing clear knowledge about who could report and types of the ADR to be reported at adverse drug monitoring center. Nobody was able to explain “rechallenge” or “dechallenge” in reference to ADRs 100% correctly. Majority of interns (85.29%) had not reported even single case of ADR till date. Poor reporting among interns were because of various reasons, which were busy in preparing postgraduate entrance examination (51.47%), problems in communicating patients (22.06%), inadequate training (22.06%), unavailability ADR form (4.41%), and overload of work (1.47%). Majority of interns (73.52%) were comfortable in ADR reporting by means of telephone. Of 68 interns, 48 (70.59%) supported that ADR reporting exercises should be taught in pharmacology practical classes. Conclusion: The deficit in ADR reporting can be resolved if we adequately train our undergraduates regarding ADR reporting system, how to report, importance of reporting, and their obligation to report.