BACKGROUND Neurological disorders are a significant cause of morbidity, mortality and adversely affect quality of life among pediatric patients. In India, more than 30% population is under 20 years of age, many of whom present late during the course of illness. Several drugs prescribed to pediatric population suffering from neurological disorders may be off label or unlicensed. AIMS AND OBJEC...

The commentary by Paula Rochon and colleagues highlights the importance of information technology in drug safety. In recent years medication error has received considerable attention, because it causes substantial mortality and morbidity and leads to additional health care costs. This source of preventable harm to hospital patients represents an area where information technology will have a pos...

OBJECTIVE To identify the occurrence of potential drug interactions in prescriptions for adult patients admitted to the Emergency Department of Hospital São Paulo. METHODS A cross-sectional and descriptive study. Its sample consisted of 200 medical prescriptions. The analysis of drug interactions was performed using the Drugs.com database, where they are classified according to severity of in...

OBJECTIVE To describe trends in outpatient prescription drug utilization in US children and the changes in major areas of pediatric therapeutic use for the years 2002 through 2010. METHODS Large prescription databases (the IMS Vector One: National and Total Patient Tracker) were used to examine national drug utilization patterns for the US pediatric population (ages 0-17 years) from 2002 thro...

A number of strategies have been shown to improve the quality of drug prescriptions. The objective of this study was to implement and assess the effectiveness of 3 interventions on physicians' prescribing and cost containment: training physicians about quality prescribing; regulatory and administrative measures to improve rational drug prescribing; and a multi-faceted approach using 2 these str...

PURPOSE Although drug-drug interactions constitute only a small proportion of adverse drug reactions, they are often predictable and therefore avoidable or manageable. There are few studies on drug-drug interactions from Brazil. This study aimed to assess the frequency of drug-drug interactions in prescriptions and their potential clinical significance in patients of a Brazilian teaching hospit...

BACKGROUND Adverse drug-related events are common in the elderly, and inappropriate prescribing is a preventable risk factor. Our objective was to determine whether inappropriate prescribing could be reduced when primary care physicians had computer-based access to information on all prescriptions dispensed and automated alerts for potential prescribing problems. METHODS We randomly assigned ...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to develop a strategy to identify adverse drug events associated with drug-drug interactions by analyzing the prescriptions of critically ill patients. METHODS This retrospective study included HIV/AIDS patients who were admitted to an intensive care unit between November 2006 and September 2008. Data were collected in two stages. In the first stage, three...

Prescriptions written by general practitioners and medical specialists were studied and compared to determine the type, time of onset and clinical importance of drug-drug interactions (DDIs) in an attempt to reduce further complications. In 2007, 28, 956, 638 prescriptions and 15, 610, 912 prescriptions in 2008 were filled by pharmacies affiliated with medical science universities. These prescr...

Aim: This study was aimed at finding the occurrence rate of prescription errors in the outpatients' prescriptions written by faculty and non-faculty physicians practicing in Shiraz, Iran. Method: In this cross-sectional study 2000 outpatient prescriptions were randomly collected from pharmacies affiliated with Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (SUMS) and social security insurance in Shiraz,...