WHY DNAP'S WORK IS IMPORTANT TO ALL OF US ...
dnaprint.com
The PhenomeSM platform system that we are developing ... will be used to identify individuals who are
incompatible with certain drug treatments before the drugs are prescribed and damage is done.
Here is a 1998 study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which estimates that in 1994
about 2,216,000 hospitalized patients had serious Adverse Drug Reactions and about 106,000 had fatal ADRs,
making these reactions between the fourth and sixth leading cause of death in the US.
Keep in mind that this study covers only hospitalized patients, only in the US.
TITLE:
Incidence of adverse drug reactions in hospitalized patients: a meta-analysis
of prospective studies [see comments]
AUTHORS:
Lazarou J; Pomeranz BH; Corey PN
AUTHOR AFFILIATION:
Department of Zoology, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
SOURCE:
JAMA 1998 Apr 15;279(15):1200-5
CITATION IDS:
PMID: 9555760 UI: 98215043
COMMENT:
Comment in: JAMA 1998 Apr 15;279(15):1216-7
Comment in: JAMA 1998 Nov 25;280(20):1741; discussion 1743-4
Comment in: JAMA 1998 Nov 25;280(20):1742; discussion 1743-4
Comment in: JAMA 1998 Nov 25;280(20):1742-3; discussion 1743-4
ABSTRACT:
OBJECTIVE: To estimate the incidence of serious and fatal adverse drug
reactions (ADR) in hospital patients.
DATA SOURCES: Four electronic databases were searched from 1966 to 1996
STUDY SELECTION: Of 153, we selected 39 prospective studies from US hospitals.
DATA EXTRACTION: Data extracted independently by 2 investigators were analyzed
by a random-effects model. To obtain the overall incidence of ADRs in hospitalized
patients, we combined the incidence of ADRs occurring while in the hospital plus the
incidence of ADRs causing admission to hospital. We excluded errors in drug
administration, noncompliance, overdose, drug abuse, therapeutic failures,
and possible ADRs. Serious ADRs were defined as those that required
hospitalization, were permanently disabling, or resulted in death.
DATA SYNTHESIS: The overall incidence of serious ADRs was 6.7% (95% confidence
interval [CI], 5.2%-8.2%) and of fatal ADRs was 0.32% (95% CI, 0.23%-0.41%)
of hospitalized patients. We estimated that in 1994 overall 2,216,000
(1,721,000-2,711,000) hospitalized patients had serious ADRs and 106,000
(76,000-137,000) had fatal ADRs, making these reactions between the fourth
and sixth leading cause of death.
CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of serious and fatal ADRs in US hospitals was found
to be extremely high. While our results must be viewed with circumspection
because of heterogeneity among studies and small biases in the samples,
these data nevertheless suggest that ADRs represent an important clinical issue.
MAIN MESH HEADINGS:
Drug Therapy/*adverse effects
Hospitals/*statistics & numerical data
Inpatients/*statistics & numerical data
Pharmaceutical Preparations/*adverse effects
ADDITIONAL MESH
HEADINGS:
Data Collection
Health Care Surveys
Human
Iatrogenic Disease/epidemiology
Incidence
Linear Models
Prospective Studies
Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
United States/epidemiology
1998/04
1998/29 06:34
PUBLICATION TYPES:
JOURNAL ARTICLE
META-ANALYSIS
CAS REGISTRY NUMBERS:
0 (Pharmaceutical Preparations)
LANGUAGES:
Eng
If you want to see the actual citation, or order the original article, go to ...
igm.nlm.nih.gov
... click Medline in the upper left, choose Title Word from the three popup menus, use the terms "meta-analysis",
"drug", and "reactions", and click Perform Search in the upper left. This citation will be one of the few that comes up.
The above study is apparently the latest of its kind, since it is referenced in a recent (July 26, 2000) article in JAMA,
entitled "Is US Health Really the Best in the World?" ... a very interesting and alarming article about something
which affects us all ...
jama.ama-assn.org
Here's a key excerpt ...
['iatrogenic' means "generated or produced by a physician", from the Greek 'iatros', meaning 'physician'.]
US estimates of the combined effect of errors and adverse effects that
occur because of iatrogenic damage not associated with recognizable error include:
12,000 deaths/year from unnecessary surgery
7000 deaths/year from medication errors in hospitals
20,000 deaths/year from other errors in hospitals
80,000 deaths/year from nosocomial infections in hospitals
106,000 deaths/year from nonerror, adverse effects of medications
These total to 225,000 deaths per year from iatrogenic causes. Three caveats should
be noted. First, most of the data are derived from studies in hospitalized patients.
Second, these estimates are for deaths only and do not include adverse effects that
are associated with disability or discomfort. Third, the estimates of death due to error
are lower than those in the IOM report.1 If the higher estimates are used, the deaths
due to iatrogenic causes would range from 230,000 to 284,000. In any case, 225,000
deaths per year constitutes the third leading cause of death in the United States, after
deaths from heart disease and cancer. Even if these figures are overestimated, there is
a wide margin between these numbers of deaths and the next leading cause of death
(cerebrovascular disease).
Stay healthy. |
