Many adverse drug reactions are widespread and preventable, according to a new study to be presented at tomorrow's annual International Pharmaceutical Federation conference.

Researchers from the Nordic School of Public Health in Sweden looked at inpatient and outpatient populations in the hospital and emergency care setting. They found that for inpatients, almost half (45 percent) of adverse drug reactions were preventable, reports IrishHealth. For outpatients, more than half (51 percent) of adverse drug reactions that lead to hospitalization or emergency visits were preventable. That number increased especially for the elderly, whose preventable adverse drug reactions were as high as 71 percent, according to a press release.

The study authors acknowledged that the hospital rates were high, attributing the rates to likely poor information flow between health units and long working hours, which may contribute to human errors.

The authors recognized that there is no "blame and shame" and that medications do more good than harm most of the time. "Human error will occur while humans continue to work in healthcare and use medicines. Thus, safety measures need to be incorporated into the health system," the authors wrote.

For more information:
- read the press release
- read the IrishHealth article

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