Large-scale study of ADEs in US reported
 Adverse drug events (ADEs) account for about 2.5 per cent of visits to emergency departments in US hospitals for unintentional injuries, according to a large-scale study published in JAMA recently (2006;296:1858–66).
The authors analysed admissions to 63 US hospitals of varying sizes and
specialties over a two-year period (from 1 January 2004) and used these
figures to determine annual national estimates. Patients aged 65 or over
accounted for about 11 per cent of all estimated unintentional injury
visits but about 25 per cent of estimated visits relating to ADEs. They
also accounted for almost 50 per cent of estimated emergency department
visits relating to ADEs that required patients to stay in hospital.
Of ADE-related admissions, about a third were attributed to unintentional
overdoses. Drugs that commonly require regular outpatient monitoring
(including lithium, digoxin and warfarin) were involved in over half
of these cases. Among patients aged 65 years or older, such drugs accounted
for over 85 per cent of estimated visits relating to overdoses and almost
90 per cent of estimated visits relating to overdoses that required a
patient to stay in hospital.
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Hospital Pharmacist