Drugs and their side effects
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7161196.stm
Almost 3,000 people have died in the past three years after
suffering serious side-effects or allergies to their
medicines, say official figures.
More than 13,000 others in the same period had an "adverse
drug reaction", but survived with hospital treatment.
The statistics, obtained by the Liberal Democrats, include
damage caused by "over the counter" drugs such as aspirin and
ibuprofen. Experts said that medicines could not be blamed
for all the reported cases.
The figures are drawn from 'yellow card' scheme, run by the
Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) to gather reports of all adverse reactions from both
clinicians and patients.
Last year, there were reports of 964 patients in the UK who
died as a result of an adverse reaction, compared with more
than 1,000 the previous year, and 861 in 2004. However, there is evidence that the vast majority of adverse drug reactions
are never reported to the MHRA.
Bigger problem
A study published last year suggested that 6.5% of all
patients admitted to hospital had experienced a reaction, and
that in four out of five cases, the medicines they were
taking were to blame. This adds up to as much as 250,000
cases a year - and an annual cost of £466 million to the NHS.
The MHRA has urged patients to join doctors in reporting drug
reactions to them via the NHS Direct phone line.
While in some cases a deadly side-effect or allergy could not
have been predicted, Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson
has conceded that some cases should have been avoided. "We have to become better at learning from these mistakes,"
he told a conference last month.
However, the Liberal
Democrats are calling for a "full investigation" into the
issue. MP Norman Lamb said: "This is a dangerously escalating
problem, which is putting lives at risk and placing a big
cost burden on the NHS."
While many of the cases involve drugs commonly prescribed by
GPs and in hospitals, such as the blood-thinning drug
warfarin and diuretics, a list of common culprits includes
some which can be bought without prescription in any high
street chemist.
These include aspirin, and the anti-inflammatory drug
ibuprofen, both of which can cause gastric bleeding if taken
in high doses over longer periods. Dr June Raine, the
Director of Vigilance and Risk Management of Medicines at the
MHRA said that every medicine carried some risk of
side-effects."Our role is to ensure that the benefits of medication
outweigh the risks. "It is important to note that a report of
an adverse drug reaction does not necessarily prove that it
was caused by the drug. Other factors such as underlying
disease or other medicines may contribute to suspected
adverse reactions."
Also
Nearly 3,000 patients have died in the past three years as a
result of taking medicines intended to help them, official
figures show.
Thousands more have been hospitalised after suffering harmful
side-effects or serious allergic reactions to prescription
drugs and other medications. Almost half of the deaths
occurred last year, while the number of reported adverse drug
reactions has increased by 45 per cent over a decade. Growing
numbers of patients taking aspirin and other medications for
chronic illness such as heart disease could be fuelling the
trend, experts suggest.
A total of 964 UK patients died because of suspected drug
reactions in 2006, more than 200 after lengthy stays in
hospital. A further 4,432 patients were also hospitalised but
survived, figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats show.
Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) describe the unwanted, negative
consequences associated with the use of any medications, as a result of medical error or otherwise. They represent a
considerable burden on the NHS, accounting for 1 in 16
hospital admissions, at a cost of up to £466 million a year.
Patients admitted because of ADRs stay an average of eight
days in hospital, research suggests, meaning that at any one
time they take up the equivalent of up to seven 800-bed
hospitals in England alone. Over the past three years, 2,846
patients died as a result of a suspected ADR, while 13,643
patients were hospitalised, the figures show.
Drugs most commonly implicated in adverse reactions include
low-dose aspirin, diuretics, the anticoagulant drug warfarin
and other nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs. The most
common problem associated with these medications is
gastrointestinal bleeding, which can be fatal. But many of
the reactions were likely to be because of incorrect dosages
or known interactions of the drugs and as such were
avoidable, research suggests.
The latest figures were revealed in answer to parliamentary
questions by the Liberal Democrats. Norman Lamb, the party’s health spokesman, commented: "This is a dangerously
escalating problem, which is putting lives at risk and
placing a big cost burden on the NHS." In addition, new“treatment targets” for specific long-term diseases, such as
high blood pressure or high cholesterol, are likely to lead
to more patients taking medicines with possible interactions
and side-effects, he said.
Approximately 20,000 reports of adverse drug reactions are
made to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory
Agency and Commission for Human Medicines every year through
a spontaneous reporting system known as the 'yellow card'
scheme. But Dawn Primarolo, the Minister for Public Health,
admitted that the yellow card scheme "is associated with an
unknown level of underreporting". "In addition, it is important to note that the submission of
a suspected ADR report does not necessarily mean that it was
caused by the drug," she added.
But the Government’s Chief Medical Officer said that the NHS
could be better at learning from its prescribing mistakes. At
a conference held by the National Patient Safety Agency last
month, Sir Liam Donaldson said that drug allergies were a
significant cause of avoidable harm in hospitals. He has also
recommended that NHS organisations should be fined if
patients are harmed while in their care. "When someone has a known allergy and we give them the drug
in error or a lack of awareness as to what’s being
prescribed, the results can be fatal,” he said. "Although
these are not common events, some mistakes are capable of
being repeated and we have to become better at learning from
these mistakes."
Sir Liam recalled the case of Teresa Innes, 38, who lapsed
into a coma in September 2001 after a surgeon at Bradford
Royal Infirmary prescribed a drug containing penicillin as
she was about to undergo a routine procedure to drain fluid
from an abscess on her thigh. Despite wearing a red allergy
band on her wrist and medical notes giving warning about her
acute aversion to the antibiotic, Mrs Innes was given the
drug Magnapen, which staff did not realise contained
penicillin.
The former care worker suffered an-aphylactic shock, which
stopped her heart for 35 minutes, resulting in permanent
brain damage. She was left in a persistent vegetative state
from which she never recovered. She died two years later.
Sir Liam added: "This is a tragic and avoidable case."