Frequency of drug prescriptions and their adverse effects in a medical department
Jämes, D.; Haller, E.; Rosselet, G.; Brooke, E.M.; Schelling, J.L.
Schweizerische Medizinische Wochenschrift 108(33): 1270-1277
1978
ISSN/ISBN: 0036-7672 PMID: 675219 Document Number: 128141
The enquiries carried out in our unit since 1971, in some 1600 patients who received in all more than 13000 drug prescriptions and who were observed during 3 periods whose total duration was 12 months, prompt the following conclusions. The number of adverse reactions in which the relationship of cause and effect with one or several drugs was either definite or probable amounted to 217, 2--3% among patients at admission and 5--11% of patients during their hospital stay. The average number of prescriptions per patient remained stable and the average number of drug reactions per 100 prescriptions varied from 0.6 to 1.6. Severe drug reactions occurred in 1.1% of patients at admission and 1.1% of patients during their hospital stay.