Text Box: The basic role of a pharmacist is to provide safe and effective medication therapy to their patients. We are trained to deliver this function by virtue of education & training that we receive. The benefits and wonderful things that the medications can provide is no brainer but sometimes these medication can result in harm to its users even when used as instructed too. These undesired and unexpected results from using the medications are commonly known as Adverse Drug Reactions (ADR’s). There are more then 10,000 drugs on the market today and more & more people are using multiple drugs as a part of their treatment regime, so unexpected events such as ADR’s are bound to occur with some people. This danger is expected to increase with the time and keeping this in perspective The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has a ADR reporting program in place. Once collected, this information can protect patients from dangerous reactions to medications. In hospitals and nursing homes this reporting is mandatory. These institutions have their policies and procedures in place to handle such events. For all health care professionals this reporting is voluntary, but vital. FDA has Medwatch Program and their website is www.fda.gov/medwatch which offers a step by step approach to reporting ADR’s Some ADR’s are of very mild nature and can be reversed by just stopping the medication or by simple treatment with antihistamine or corticosteroids but some can be fatal, life threatening, or disabling requiring extended hospital stays. These are defined as serious and must be reported. ADR’s are often hard to pin down but by direct interventions can be identified. Less then 1% ADR’s are of serious nature.

Pakistani American Pharmaceutical Association
Text Box: PHARMACISTS AND ADRs Contributed by Syed Tanveer Hussain MS R.Ph.

Pharmacist, being the link between the patient and their physician, have a major role in meeting the ADR challenge. It is only the pharmacist  who knows patients and medications, and who pays close attention to see when things aren’t proceeding the way they should. Some times by questioning with your patient you will be able to collect wealth of information  Many times the sudden stop of medication will raise a red flag with a question in your mind that Why has this person stopped taking a particular medication, other times the purchase of antihistamines, corticosteroid prescriptions or over the counter rash creams will indicate an adverse event. By closely monitoring your patients, a good pharmacist will be able to identify an ADR and prevent them from repeating in future. You won’t eliminate surprises but you will help to minimize their impact.
Text Box: A Lady says to pharmacist: "Why does my prescription medication have 40 side effects?" Pharmacist replies: "Cause that's all we've documented so far." A pharmacist is going over the directions on a prescription bottle with an elderly patient. "Be sure not to take this more often than every 4 hours," the pharmacist says. "Don't worry," replies the patient. "It takes me 4 hours to get the lid off".

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