To study the preventability of adverse drug reactions in Tertiary Care Hospital in Assam

Abstract

Background

An adverse drug event (ADE) is any untoward medical occurrence in a patient who is administered a medicinal product and which doesn’t necessarily have a causal relationship with this treatment. Pharmacological adverse drug reactions (ADRs) happen when the plasma and (or) tissue concentration surpasses the "therapeutic window" or a patient's reactivity to the drug agent increases. Preventability assessment can be done to know if the occurred reaction was inevitable or not. Most ADRs can be prevented on the basis of already known adverse reactions to pharmacological products and procedures.

Methods

This study is a non-interventional, hospital-based, prospective, cross-sectional, observational study conducted at Diphu Medical College & Hospital on patients who presented with adverse reactions to both inpatient and outpatient department during the period of 1^st July 2024 to 30^th June 2025.  A total of 123 reported cases of all age group was taken, out of which 99 cases were enrolled under the study.  

Results & Observation

Preventability was assessed using Modified Schumock and Thornton Scale. 36.4% of the ADRs were “preventable”, 19.2% were “probably preventable” and 44.4% were “not preventable”. Hence most of the ADRs are not preventable. No ADR related mortality was recorded during the study period.

Conclusion

The study of assessment of preventability signifies that it is not always possible to preclude an ADR, but measures can be taken to decrease the occurrence of ADR and mortalities.