The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 278 No 7437 p126
3 February 2007

This article
Reprint   Photocopy

  Acrobat Reader

News summary

Reasons for drug-related admissions examined

A third of preventable drug-related hospital admissions are associated with problems with adherence, a study published in this month’s British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology suggests (2007;63:136). Researchers from Nottingham Primary Care Research Partnership analysed data from 13 papers and found that, overall, 3.7 per cent (median; range 1.3–15.4 per cent) of hospital admissions were considered drug related and preventable.

From nine papers they found that the four types of drugs most likely to cause such admissions are antiplatelets (16 per cent), diuretics (16 per cent), non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs (11 per cent) and anticoagulants (8 per cent).

The authors say that, although there were a large number of studies looking at preventable drug-related admissions, further studies are needed to analyse the underlying causes of the admissions. “This may help in the development of interventions aimed at improving the safety of prescribing and drug monitoring, and improving adherence to medication,” they say.