Current Drug Safety - Volume 8, Issue 3, 2013

Background: Recent evidence suggests that periconceptional folic acid use could not only prevent neural tube defects but also other malformations. The objectives of this study were to assess trends in dispensed high dose periconceptional folic acid (5 mg) and birth prevalence of major congenital malformations. Methods: The Quebec Pregnancy Registry, an administrative database with information on periconcept Read More

Medical product information contains information about efficacy and safety for marketed pharmaceuticals. Three studies have compared safety labelling for different therapeutic categories in different countries and detected large variations in a number of reported adverse drug reactions (ADRs). The rapid increase in use of medications for treatment of ADHD symptoms has created concern due to lack of information abou Read More

This review article systematically and critically summarizes the current evidence regarding desipramine for treating children and adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). PRISMA guideline was used for gathering the data. The databases of PubMed/Medline and Google scholar were electronically searched. This review included controlled clinical trials investigating the efficacy of desipramine for treating c Read More

Objective: Hyponatraemia is a serious adverse event commonly reported in elderly people treated with serotonergic antidepressants. The mechanism, incidence and risk factors for antidepressant induced hyponatraemia are not fully understood. Method: In a retrospective chart analysis, depressed patients aged >63 years were investigated for change in serum sodium levels between two time points, separated b Read More

Purpose: Thiopurines are effective in attaining and maintaining remission in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). The major drawback of these drugs are their serious adverse effects (SAE), highlighting the importance of preemptive identification of patients at risk. We aimed to examine whether gene polymorphisms in GSTM1, GSTT1 and TPMT, combined with various clinical parameters, can predict thiopurine in Read More

Context and Aim: Asthma is a common problem in paediatric population. International treatment guidelines recognize the role of inhaled corticosteroids for asthma in young children. Inhaled fluticasone propionate is reported to have greater systemic effects like other corticosteroids. Limited data is available on safety of this drug when used for longer duration. So, we conducted a systematic review to study the effect Read More

The standard version of the wing somatic mutation and recombination test (SMART) in Drosophila melanogaster was employed in order to evaluate the genotoxic potential of metronidazole (MTZ) as a function of exposure concentration. MTZ was administered by chronic feeding of 3-day-old larvae with the parenteral solution at 0, 500, 1000 and 2000 µg/ml until pupation. The marker-heterozygous progeny (mwh+/+flr3) with Read More

Levofloxacin induced psychiatric adverse effects are rare, although they can be serious. There are just five cases of fluoroquinolone-induced delirium published in the medical literature. To our best knowledge, none of them occurred in psychotic patients. We report a case of a 38-year-old Caucasian man diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and multiple sclerosis who developed delirium and visual hallucinations after initi Read More

Dronedarone was introduced in 2009 as a new antiarrhythmic agent and since then has been increasingly prescribed in atrial fibrillation or flutter. To date, two cases of severe toxic hepatitis have been reported in patients treated with dronedarone, both requiring emergency liver transplantation, and the FDA as well as the EMA have issued warnings about possible severe hepatotoxicity of dronedarone. Here we re Read More

Immediate management of drug overdose relies upon the patient account of what was ingested and how much. Paracetamol (acetaminophen) is involved in around 40% of intentional overdose episodes, and remains the leading cause of acute liver failure in many countries including the United Kingdom. In recent years, consumers have had increasing access to medications supplied by international retailers via the intern Read More

Antidepressants are commonly prescribed and used in the management of depression, anxiety disorders, and other psychiatric illnesses. Antidepressants used in therapeutic dosing ranges are associated with causing several adverse drug reactions including hepatotoxicity. Paroxetine, fluoxetine, fluvoxamine, citalopram, mirtazapine and venlafaxine are associated with reversible liver injury upon discontinuation of the a Read More