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Evaluating drug risks: scientific evidence and case specifics must be taken into account

Three factors influence drug risk evaluations: evaluation data on the drug, pharmacological data, and the specifics of each patient’s case.

Awareness of a treatment’s adverse effects (study results and pharmacovigilance data) help healthcare professionals to assess the risks to their patients.

In practice, clinical trials are not the most reliable source of information on adverse effects. It is better to gather other data (including pharmacology and physiology) to build up a sufficiently robust set of arguments to manage uncertainty.

Healthcare professionals must also take into account the specifics of each patient’s case and consider these too as potential risk factors.

Informing patients both of a drug’s risks and its anticipated benefits enables patients to be involved in the evaluation of the treatment’s risk-benefit balance on an individual basis. It allows them to play an active part in reaching the treatment decision best suited to their situation.

©Prescrire February 2010

"Evaluating treatment risks" Prescrire Int 2010; 19 (105): 44 (pdf, free)

 
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