Detecting and Managing Adverse Drug Reactions

Detecting and Managing Adverse Drug Reactions is a topic covered in the Davis's Drug Guide.

To view the entire topic, please or .

Emergency Central is a collection of disease, drug, and test information including 5-Minute Emergency Medicine Consult, Davis’s Drug, McGraw-Hill Medical’s Diagnosaurus®, Pocket Guide to Diagnostic Tests, and MEDLINE Journals created for emergency medicine professionals. Explore these free sample topics:

-- The first section of this topic is shown below --

General

An adverse drug reaction (ADR) is any unexpected, undesired, or excessive response to a medication that results in:

  • temporary or permanent serious harm or disability
  • admission to a hospital, transfer to a higher level of care, or prolonged stay
  • death.

Adverse drug reactions are distinguished from adverse drug events, in which causality is uncertain, and side effects, which may be bothersome to the patient and necessitate a change in therapy but are not considered serious. Although some ADRs are the result of medication errors, many are not.

-- To view the remaining sections of this topic, please or --

General

An adverse drug reaction (ADR) is any unexpected, undesired, or excessive response to a medication that results in:

  • temporary or permanent serious harm or disability
  • admission to a hospital, transfer to a higher level of care, or prolonged stay
  • death.

Adverse drug reactions are distinguished from adverse drug events, in which causality is uncertain, and side effects, which may be bothersome to the patient and necessitate a change in therapy but are not considered serious. Although some ADRs are the result of medication errors, many are not.

There's more to see -- the rest of this topic is available only to subscribers.