Why adverse drug reactions?
A large proportion of negative reactions to medicines are due to irrational use or human error and are therefore preventable. The main ones are: • Wrong diagnosis of the patient’s condition • Prescription of the wrong drug or wrong dosage of the right drug • Undetected medical, genetic or allergic condition in the patient which might cause a bad reaction to the drug • Self-medication • Lack of adherence to the prescribed course of the drug • A large number of different drugs being taken by the patient (polypharmacy), which may interact. However, it is important to remember that even when the above situations are carefully avoided, all medicines have side effects and some of those can be damaging. The effects of any medical intervention cannot be predicted with absolute certainty. No drug is totally devoid of risk. For all medicines there is a trade-off between the benefits and the potential for harm. The harm can be minimized by ensuring that medicines of good quality, safety and effic
