International Journal of Pharmacology and Clinical Sciences, 2016, 5, 1, 12-16.
DOI: 10.5530/ijpcs.5.1.3
Published: March 2016
Type: Research Article
Authors: Afkat Ahmad, Arshad Hussain, Samina Farhat, Shagufta Parveen, Vineeta Sawhney, Zubair Ashai
Author(s) affiliations:
Afkat Ahmad1, Arshad Hussain2, Samina Farhat1, Shagufta Parveen1*, Vineeta Sawhney1, Zubair Ashai1
1Department of Pharmacology, Government Medical College Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, INDIA.
2Department of Psychiatry, Government Medical College Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, INDIA.
Abstract
Background: Adverse effects are usually dose dependent and can be influenced by patient characteristics including age and gender and these confounding factors should be considered in clinical practice and in the interpretation of research data. Selection of an antipsychotic drug should be on an individual patient basis. Patients should be involved in prescribing decisions and this should involve discussion about adverse drug reactions and their severity. Objective: The current study was carried out with the aim to look into the severity with which the adverse drug reactions were associated with various antipsychotics used in our day-to-day practice. Materials and Methods: It was a prospective observational study conducted over a period of one year in the Outpatient Department of Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (IMHNS), Government Medical College Srinagar. An assessment of severity was done using the modified Hartwig and Siegel scale. Results: A total of 100 ADRs of different types were observed in 77 patients out of a total of 177 patients included in our study, with an overall prevalence of about 43.5%. Most (83.0%) of the ADRs were mild in severity while ADRs moderate in severity were found in only 17 (17.0%) according to the modified Hartwig and Siegel scale. None of the reported ADRs belonged to the ‘severe’ or ‘lethal’ category. There was no statistically significant relationship between the development of ADRs with age (p=0.8) or sex (p=0.6) of the patients included in the study. Conclusion: Although with the utilization of antipsychotics, the prevalence of ADRs in our study was as high as 43.5%, most of them (83%) were mild in nature and only 17% of them were of moderate severity and none of our patients showed the development of any severe ADR which would lead them to discontinue the therapy.
Keywords: ADR prevalence, ADR reporting, ADR severity due to Antipsychotics, Antipsychotics and ADRs, Modified Hartwig and Siegel scale