The burden of adverse drug reactions

admin December 18th, 2006

The BMJ report on the HARM study, published in the Netherlands:

The hospital admissions related to medication (HARM) study found that 41 000 hospital admissions a year in the Netherlands were caused either by the incorrect use of or adverse reactions to drugs (www.nvza.nl).

These admissions accounted for 5.6% of acute admissions and were twice as likely to involve patients older than 65 years.

Almost half—19 000 admissions—were deemed “possibly avoidable” and cost the health services 85m euros (£57m; $112m) a year. They were thought to play a part in an estimated 1254 deaths a year.

This first empirical study into the safety of medicines in the Netherlands screened all acute admissions in 21 hospitals over 40 days to see whether the reasons for admissions included drug related problems.

Patients identified as being at risk were those who had failed to take their medicines properly; had reduced competence; took more than five different drugs; and had more than one medical condition, in particular kidney failure.

More information is available here.

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