Background: Adverse drug reaction, usually reported by pharmacovigilance, either through health care professionals or the patients themselves is of utmost importance to give an accurate estimate of the severity of the drug and also if the ADRs are casual, preventable or severe.Methods: A total of 42 patients satisfied the WHO definition of ‘adverse drug reactions’ were included in the study. The demographic details were taken, and the regular physical examination and clinical examination was done for all the patients. The latest drug they were on and the dosage were analyzed and the type of reaction was assessed. The causality, severity and preventability were also assessed.Results: Majority of the ADRs were found in the medicine department, followed pulmonology, obstetrics-gynecology and paediatrics. B-lactams were the major cause of ADRs with 42.2%, followed by NSAIDs with 23.8%, fluoroquinolones with 19% and 9.5% due to antitubercular drugs. 66.7% of the ADRs were mild, 28.6% were moderate and 4.8% were severe. The most common type of ADR were skin rashes (40.5%), urticara (16.7%), headaches (26.2%), insomnia (21.4%), diarrhoea (21.4%), abdominal pain (14.3%) and vomiting (4.8%). Most of the ADRs were evaluated as probably preventable (69%), definitely preventable (26.2%), non preventable (4.8%).Conclusions: Most of the drug reactions are mild and preventable. More health care professionals as well as patients need to be aware of the drug reactions at much early age so as to prevent the condition before it becomes serious.

Background: Acne vulgaris is one of the most common dermatological disorder affecting the pilo sebaceous glands resulting in their blockage or inflammation. Symptoms of acne may include local erythema and tenderness and pain. Medication include benzoyl peroxide, retinoids, salicylic acid, alpha hydroxy acid, nicotinamide, azelaic acid, anti-seborrheic medications, hormonal treatment, anti-androgen medications and keratolytic soaps.Methods: About 166 patients who were treated for acne vulgaris were included into the study after taking the informed consent from the patients. This study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee. The demographic details of the patients with regards to their, age sex, weight, BMI were taken. The acne was medically diagnosed, and the grade was assessed.Results: Out of the 166 patients included into the study, 92 (55%) were females while 74 (45%) were males and the mean age was 25.4±1.6 of the patients belonged to the middle class. Of the patients, most of them were adolescents or less than 25 years of age (54.2%). 64 of the patients were between 26-45 years while only 12 were >45 years of age. A total of 521 drugs were prescribed. Of them, 37.6% were through the oral route and 62.4% were topical the most common prescribed drugs were antimicrobials, both topical and oral.Conclusions: The multidrug prescription in most of the cases can be rationalized if a drug monitoring system can be effectively put into place. This would not only reduce the number of drugs per prescription but also the cost of treatment.

Many a times, BPH is many types of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), including urinary frequency, retention, nocturia, intermittent force of the urinary ABSTRACT Background: Benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) is one of the most common disorders effecting elderly men resulting in lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), including urinary frequency, retention, nocturia, intermittent force of the urinary stream, sensation of incomplete bladder emptying etc. The medical treatment preferred of late is with alpha-1 blockers or 5-alpha-reductase inhibitors or anti androgens. Prazosin, an older alpha-1 adrenergic blocker is considered a very useful drug in the treatment of PBH. Methods: 97 patients, above 45 years of age and diagnosed with mild to moderate benign prostatic hyperplasia with lower urinary tract symptoms were included into the study. All patients were given prazosin 0.5 mg orally twice daily for a week. After 1 week, the night dose was increased to 1mg form 0.5 mg while the morning dose remained as 0.5 mg. All the patients were asked to record their symptoms for three days before each visit to the hospital. The parameters to record were nocturia, frequency, urgency, straining, force of urine and decreased force of urine, intermittency, and sensation of the urine residue. All these parameters were recorded on a scale of 0-5, where 0 is the total absence of symptoms and 5 is the most severe symptom. Results: There was an improvement in the systolic and the diastolic blood pressure after 4 weeks of treatment. There was marked improvement in the urine output in the patients after 4 weeks of treatment. There was reduction in the nocturis and the frequency of urine by the patient. There was significant reduction in the urgency and the hesitancy of the urine. About 71 (80%) patients showed improvement in the sense of residual urine by the patients, while 66(74%) showed improvement in the terminal dribbling of urine. 65 (73%) of the patients showed relief from prolonged micturation, while nocturia and day time frequency showed improvement in over 60% of the cases. Conclusions: We therefore conclude that prazosin is also a very effective drug for the treatment of BPH, in terms of the urine outflow and decreased frequency and nocturia.

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