Pharmacovigilance in Drug Therapy: Drug–Drug Interactions and Safety Evaluation, 2nd Edition

A special issue of Pharmaceuticals (ISSN 1424-8247). This special issue belongs to the section "Pharmacology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2025 | Viewed by 681

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
1.GalenusRx, Orlando, FL, USA
2. Faculty of Pharmacy, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC H3C 3J7, Canada
Interests: drug metabolism; multi-drug interactions; clinical decision support systems; drug safety; drug-induced long QT syndrome
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Dear Colleagues,

Medicines, whether they are small molecules, natural products, or biologics used to treat various diseases and conditions, inherently possess not only desired and expected effects but also, to a certain degree, unexpected and unwanted side-effects. The monitoring of the efficacy and toxicity of medicines within our armamentarium is at the heart of pharmacovigilance programs. Through pharmacovigilance programs, we can detect, assess, understand, and prevent adverse effects related to any medicine. Pharmacovigilance programs monitor medicine effectiveness, efficacy and safety not just under controlled product development conditions but also under real-world situations, i.e., in patients within their individualized environment and through exposure to different food products, with their various diseases, treated with multiple drugs, history of allergies, ethnicity, preferences, use of recreational drugs, alcohol and tobacco, etc. One of the drawbacks of pharmacovigilance programs is the necessary exposure of patients to medicine and their side-effects. Today, is it possible to develop new ways to assess medicine safety without exposing many patients to medicines? What are the tools and technologies available, such as simulation studies, artificial intelligence, virtual trials, pharmacogenomics, or real-world databases, that we could take advantage of and use to better predict drug safety? How could we better predict drug interactions, drug–food interactions, drug–disease interactions, drug–gene interactions, and drug–drug–gene interactions. The objective of this Special Issue, entitled “Pharmacovigilance in Drug Therapy: Drug–Drug Interactions and Safety Evaluation, 2nd Edition”, is to collect a series of publications that better inform the scientific community and the public about medication safety.

As the Guest Editor of this Special Issue of Pharmaceutics, I hope that you will accept my invitation to contribute an original paper.

Considering the success and great interest in papers submitted for the First Edition, we have launched a second edition to invite more interesting papers here.

Sincerely,

Dr. Jacques Turgeon
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • pharmacovigilance
  • multi-drug interactions
  • clinical decision support systems
  • drug safety
  • drug side-effects
  • drug–drug interactions

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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12 pages, 933 KiB  
Article
Medication Errors in Psychiatric Hospitals: A Nationwide Real-World Evidence Study in Saudi Arabia
by Khalidah A. Alenzi, Mona Y. Alsheikh, Deemah S. Alsuhaibani, Yasser Alatawi and Thamir M. Alshammari
Pharmaceuticals 2024, 17(11), 1514; https://doi.org/10.3390/ph17111514 - 11 Nov 2024
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Abstract
Background: Medication errors are among the most prevalent medical errors and result in significant morbidity and mortality. They pose a major threat to patient safety in psychiatric hospitals. However, the lack of a comprehensive investigation into the root causes of these errors [...] Read more.
Background: Medication errors are among the most prevalent medical errors and result in significant morbidity and mortality. They pose a major threat to patient safety in psychiatric hospitals. However, the lack of a comprehensive investigation into the root causes of these errors restricts the development of effective corrective measures. Objective: This study aimed to characterize the types of errors, determine the stages of the medication use process, and identify factors associated with errors occurring among government psychiatric hospitals in Saudi Arabia. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted from August 2019 to June 2020. All medication error reports submitted to the Ministry of Health General Administration of Pharmaceutical Care database from 18 government psychiatric hospitals in Saudi Arabia were assessed. The database is de-identified and contains information on all medication errors, including patient demographics, medication information, error information, causes of errors, and reporter information. Medication use was categorized as ordering/prescribing, transcribing, dispensing, administration, and monitoring. The present findings represent a descriptive analysis of the data using Statistical Analysis Software (SAS) version 9.4. Result: A total of 23,355 medication error reports were reported to the database during the study period. Among Saudi Arabian cities, Riyadh (n = 8972, 38.4%) had the highest medication error reporting rate, followed by Taif (n = 3705, 15.9%) and Jeddah (n = 2621, 11.2%). Most reported errors were frequently made by physicians (n = 20,284, 86.9%) and were primarily detected by pharmacists (n = 20,974, 89.8%). Approximately half of them (n = 13,150, 56.3%) were classified as “Category B” that occurred, but they did not reach patients. Most medication errors were reported in adults (n = 22,589, 96.7%) and male patients (n = 16,393, 70.2%). Most error reports were detected at the prescription stage (n = 16,481; 70.6%) during the medication-use process. Work overload of the staff (n = 2911, 12.8%) and drug labeling, packaging, and nomenclature (n = 2826, 12.1%) were the most common contributing factors associated with the reported errors. Olanzapine (n = 1650, 7.1%), omeprazole (n = 1350, 5.8%), and quetiapine (n = 1273, 5.5%) were the most common medications associated with medication errors. Conclusions: Preventable medication errors are typical in psychiatric hospitals and may result in severe consequences. Increased efforts are needed to control and minimize prescribing errors and improve reporting in Saudi Arabia. Full article
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