[Drug surveillance: concepts, objectives, and methods]. / Farmacovigilância: conceitos, objectivos e métodos.

Adverse reactions to drugs, by their frequency and morbidity, constitute a very important problem in clinical practice today. However, it is not always possible to establish the definitive causal relationship between the drug and the clinico-laboratory situation. This is not only due to the variability of these findings and the inherent difficulties of the methodology used, but also the fact that most doctors show little sensitivity to such an important subject. In this paper we present a short review of the drug surveillance programme: basic concepts, objectives and the most important methodology, as well as the current situation in the EEC countries.