Deprescribing: Barriers, Benefits, and Harms

Polypharmacy, which is the practice of prescribing five or more medicines to the same patient is associated withmany problems like adverse drug reactions and poor adherence to therapy and can be harmful. Recently, the termdeprescribing is used to describe the systematic process of identifying and discontinuing medicines in situationsin which potential or existing harms outweigh potential or existing benefits for the seek of individual patient caregoals and preferences. Many studies assessed the attitude of patients or perceptions of health care practitionerstowards deprescribing, others evaluated barriers or factors affecting deprescribing. Since the practice ofdeprescribing is growing, this study aimed to review the harms, benefits, and barriers of deprescribing. Somestudies reported that patients may be interested in withdrawing one or more of their medicines if advised by theirtreating doctors and at the same time costs and experiencing medication adverse effects may result in awillingness to decrease the number of medications taken. Harms that may occur due to deprescribing can beminimized or even prevented by using a structured and patient-specific deprescribing process with properplanning and careful monitoring during and after medication withdrawal.

Are we pharmacovigilant enough in ophthalmic practice.

No drug is absolutely safe. Pharmacovigilance is the science related to detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects or any other possible drug-related problems. The ocular medications and devices can cause localized and systemic adverse effects. Not all adverse effects are known when a drug or device is launched in market because of limitations of clinical trials. Many adverse effects are recognized due to the spontaneous reporting of the vigilant doctors who observe and report such events encountered in their practice. Despite a large ophthalmic patient population base, India does not have robust adverse drug reaction (ADR) database because of lack of reporting culture. Government of India recently launched the Pharmacovigilance Programme of India (PvPI) to monitor ADRs and create awareness among the healthcare professionals about the importance of ADRs. Suspecting and reporting a possible drug reaction is very important in developing a safe and rational ophthalmic practice.

Toxic epidermal necrolysis and agranulocytosis: Rare adverse effects of ciprofloxacin.

Ciprofloxacin is one of the most commonly used antibacterial agents with relatively few side effects. Serious adverse reactions reported with ciprofloxacin are rare with an incidence of 0.6%. Recently we came across two rare adverse effects of ciprofloxacin, viz. toxic epidermal necrolysis and agranulocytosis. To our knowledge, a total of seven cases have been reported in the literature documenting an association between oral ciprofloxacin administration and toxic epidermal necrolysis. One case of granulocytopenia, four of pancytopenia and fifteen of leucopenia worldwide have been reported. With the use of ciprofloxacin becoming more and more widespread, these two rare but fatal complications of ciprofloxacin should be borne in mind.

Importancia de la farmacovigilancia en pediatría / Importance of pharmacovigilance in the Mexican pediatric population

Con el objetivo de destacar la importancia de la farmaco vigilancia en pediatría, se efectuó una revisión con especial énfasis en sus aspectos generales y conceptuales, sustentados en la Norma Oficial Mexicana y otras. Se describen las diferentes clasificaciones de las Reacciones Adversas a los Medicamentos (RAM) y de los Eventos Adversos a los Medicamentos (EAM). Utilizando como fuente la base de datos del Centro de Monitoreo Internacional de los Medicamentos, en la que se analiza hasta el año 2006 el estado actual de los reportes de las RAM de 82 países, en el que México se ubica, por grupos de edad y por número de reportes, en un lugar intermedio con el resto de los países. Se destaca el impacto de las RAM en la población general en aspectos de morbilidad, mortalidad, secuelas y economía. Se comunican las experiencias de grupos internacionales sobre el impacto de los EAM y las RAM en la edad pediátrica y neonatal. Se mencionan varias recomendaciones que permitirán que en México se implante o mejore un sistema de farmacovigilancia en los niños, en el que el Hospital Infantil de México Federico Gómez ha iniciado un ambicioso programa.

In order to emphasize the importance of pharmacovigilance in children, a review was carried out with special emphasis on general and conceptual aspects outlined in the Mexican Official Norm and other documents. The different classifications from the Adverse Drug Reactions (ADR) and Adverse Drug Events (ADE) are discussed. Using the data base of the WHO Collabotatory Center for Drugs International Monitoring, uppsala Monitoring Center (Sweden) we analyzed up to the year 2006 the present status of the ADR reports from 82 countries. Mexico ranks in the middle classified by age groups and number of reports in the data base. The impact of ADR stands out in the general population according to morbidity, mortality, sequealaes and cost considerations. The impact of ADE and ADR in new-borns and pediatric patients reports the experiences of international groups. Several recommendations are mentioned that will allow a system of pharmacovigilance to be established or improved for children in Mexico. The Hospital Infantil of Mexico has initiated an ambitious program.