Pharmacovigilance & Drug Safety

Adverse Drug Reactions

Adverse drug reactions can be considered a form of toxicity or enhanced drug effects that occur during appropriate use (e.g., when drug metabolism is temporarily inhibited by a disorder or another drug). In the US, 3 to 7% of all hospitalizations are due to adverse drug reactions. ADRs occur during 10 to 20% of hospitalizations; about 10 to 20% of these ADRs are severe. Incidence of death due to ADRs is unknown; suggested rates of 0.5 to 0.9% may be falsely high because many of the patients included had serious and complex disorders.