Psychiatric Symptoms after Taking Oseltamivir in a Child and Its Causality Assessment

Oseltamivir is an antiviral medication prescribed to prevent and treat influenza A and B. A case from a community pharmacy in Korea was reported for an adverse event associated with oseltamivir administration. A 20-month-old boy had psychiatric symptoms after receiving 2 doses of oseltamivir. Therefore, an evaluation of whether the psychiatric symptoms were caused by oseltamivir was required. To determine whether the adverse event resulted from the administrated medication or other factors, three tools were used: the Naranjo scale, the Korean causality assessment algorithm (Ver.2), and the World Health Organization-Uppsala Monitoring Center (WHO-UMC) criteria. The psychiatric symptoms occurred after oseltamivir administration, and were attenuated after oseltamivir termination. A possible cause of the psychiatric symptoms is high fever, but information on the body temperature of the patient was not sufficient. Therefore, it was unclear whether there were other nonpharmacological causes of adverse drug reaction. For these reasons, in terms of causality, the results evaluated by the three tools represented, “possible”, “probable”, and “probable/likely”, respectively.

Bleeding after Taking Dual Antiplatelets and NSAID Concurrently

When stenting is applied to treat myocardial infarction, antiplatelet agents are administered to prevent thrombosis, which increases the risk of bleeding. Patients with myocardial infarction are also more likely to have osteoarthritis simultaneously, because both diseases occur frequently in elderly patients. Patients with osteoarthritis often use analgesics, especially nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs); hence, patients with both diseases use analgesics and antiplatelet agents simultaneously. The risk of bleeding increases with the use of antiplatelet agents and this is further increased when NSAIDs are added. We would like to report a case that reflects this situation. A 60-year-old man underwent stenting after ST-elevation myocardial infarction, and was treated with aspirin and clopidogrel. This patient also received a pelubiprofen prescription from another physician to treat osteoarthritis. After the patient took pelubiprofen twice, he found a bruise on his wrist and reported it to the pharmacist. It is unlikely that this is rare in community pharmacies, so pharmacists should pay careful attention to the concomitant administration of analgesics to patients receiving antiplatelet agents and should provide appropriate education to patients.