REASONS FOR REPORTING ADVERSE DRUG-REACTIONS - SOME THOUGHTS BASED ONAN INTERNATIONAL REVIEW

A pilot study was made to explore positive reasons for physicians and pharmacists taking time to report adverse reactions, rather than reaso ns for failing to report which has been studied by many authors. The 3 4 national drug monitoring centres participating in the international programme at the time of the study were asked by letter from the WHO C ollaborating Centre for International Drug Monitoring, Uppsala to inve stigate the reasons why adverse reactions were reported. National Cent res were asked to write to 20 consecutive reporters, sending each a co py of their own report, asking why they had chosen to report that part icular reaction, and asking for more general comment. Twelve countries responded with information about the habits and views of the reporter s of 177 cases. Since this was an explorative pilot study the letter t o reporters deliberately had only an open question about reason for re porting. Categories were developed by the WHO Centre from the response s given. Reasons for reporting fell into a total of 14 categories with the great majority in the top six: motivation to contribute to medica l knowledge reaction previously unknown to reporter reaction to new dr ug all significant reactions reported known association between drug a nd reaction severity of reaction. (C) 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.