HEALTH TIPS - Monday, April 3, 2000
                "News That Keeps You Healthy"


           MANY PATIENTS REACT ADVERSELY TO DRUGS
A study shows 50 percent of patients questioned have suffered
an adverse reaction to therapeutic drugs. Scientists from the
Louisiana State University and PharMerica at Touro Infirmary
in New Orleans found the reactions included unwanted side
effects and allergic responses. This problem has been well
publicized in the hospital setting, but the new research
focused on patients visiting a retail pharmacy in Louisiana.
Of the 103 volunteers questioned, 50.5 percent said they had
70 unwanted drug events sometime during their lives -- nearly
all of them in the outpatient setting. Only 19 percent of the
adverse reactions occurred in a hospital. Patients reported
11 percent of these unwanted events as being life-threatening.
As a result, 14 percent of them sought care in the hospital
emergency room, and 2 percent required hospitalization.
Another 55 percent of patients either visited or called their
health care provider for advice, said principal study
investigator Gamal Hussein. "Because more than half of the
adverse events occurred after patients took the first doses
of their drugs, a phone call by the pharmacist to each patient
within 24 hours after receiving a new prescription should help
detect any early signs of problems," Hussein said.