Knowledge and attitude of Ayurvedic Physicians towards Adverse drug reactions and reporting methods in Udupi region

Abstract

Introduction: Patient safety is of utmost important in any system of medicine. There is a well-established pharmacovigilance system with allopathic drugs and the ADRs reporting methods are known by allopathic physicians but the same scenario is not with ayurvedic medicines. Objective: To access the knowledge and attitude of ayurvedic physicians with respect to adverse drug reactions caused using ayurvedic medicines and reporting methods. Methodology: A survey among the ayurvedic physicians with the questionnaire was conducted. Results: The mean age of the respondents was 37.12 + 10.24. Of total 33 respondents 15 (45.5%) have observed ADRs in their practice. 25 (75.7%) of the respondents stated that they were aware of all the reporting methods whereas 8 (24.3%) of the respondents were not aware about reporting methods. Conclusion: The finding of this study indicates the need for awareness about the ayurvedic medicines adverse drug reactions and reporting methods among ayurvedic physicians. AYUSH may conduct a few training sessions or programs exclusively on adverse drug reactions and its reporting methods and credit hours can be awarded to the participants. A few more such studies and research are warranted to get a larger picture about knowledge and attitude of physicians towards adverse drug reactions.