What Students Need To Know About Adverse Drug Reactions ( ADR)

An adverse drug reaction (ADR) can be defined as an appreciably harmful or unpleasant reaction resulting from an intervention related to the use of a medicinal product; adverse effects usually predict hazard from future administration and warrant prevention, or specific treatment, or alteration of the dosage regimen, or withdrawal of the product. Since 2012, the definition has included reactions occurring as a result of error, misuse or abuse, and to suspected reactions to medicines that are unlicensed or being used offlabel in addition to the authorised use of a medicinal product in normal doses. While this change potentially alters the reporting and surveillance carried out by manufactures and medicines regulators, in clinical practice it should not affect our approach to managing ADRs. In 2014, NHS England and the MHRA issued a joint alert: Improving medication error incident reporting and learning. As part of this, ADRs occurring as a result of medication errors reported to the National Reporting an