Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety
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Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf · Oct 2009
Drug safety alert generation and overriding in a large Dutch university medical centre.
To evaluate numbers and types of drug safety alerts generated and overridden in a large Dutch university medical centre. ⋯ Drug safety alerts were generated in one third of orders and were frequently overridden. Duplicate order alerts more often resulted in order cancellation (20%) than did alerts for overdose (11%) or DDIs (2%). DDIs were most frequently overridden. Only a small number of DDIs caused these overrides. Studies on improvement of alert handling should focus on these frequently-overridden DDIs.
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Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf · Sep 2009
Integrating nine prescription opioid analgesics and/or four signal detection systems to summarize statewide prescription drug abuse in the United States in 2007.
Integrate statewide rankings of abuse across different drugs and/or signal detection systems to summarize prescription drug abuse in each state in 2007. ⋯ We have presented methods to integrate data on prescription opioid abuse collected by signal detection systems covering different populations. Linearized maps are effective graphical summaries that depict differences in the level of prescription opioid abuse at the state level.
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Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf · Aug 2009
Is physician adherence to prescription guidelines a general trait of health care practices or dependent on drug type?--a multilevel logistic regression analysis in South Sweden.
Therapeutic traditions at health care practices (HCPs) influence physicians' adherence to prescription guidelines for specific drugs, however, it is not known if such traditions affect all kinds of prescriptions or only specific types of drug. Our goal was to determine whether adherence to prescription guidelines is a common trait of HCPs or dependent on drug type. ⋯ Physicians' decisions to follow prescription guidelines seem to be influenced by therapeutic traditions at the HCP. Moreover, these therapeutic traditions seem to affect all kinds of prescriptions. This information can be used as basis for interventions to support rational and cost-effective medication use.
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Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf · Jul 2009
Comparative StudyPsychotropic drug use in the Norwegian general population in 2005: data from the Norwegian Prescription Database.
To analyse psychotropic drug utilisation patterns in the general population of Norway in 2005. ⋯ The majority of psychotropic drugs were prescribed by GPs. Overall drug use increased significantly, and psychiatrists' contribution decreased significantly with patients' age. The quality of pharmacological treatment for mental health problems of the general and aging population therefore relies mainly on the GPs.
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Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf · Jul 2009
Comparative StudyInternational impacts of regulatory action to limit antidepressant prescribing on rates of suicide in young people.
Concerns that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) may increase the risk of suicidal behaviour amongst young people led to regulatory action in 2003/4 in many countries. Antidepressant prescribing to young people in various countries declined, but subsequent analyses have demonstrated mixed effects on population suicide rates. ⋯ There was no evidence of an overall effect on suicides of regulatory action to restrict prescribing of SSRIs to young people, although there was weak evidence of an increase in suicide amongst young women internationally.