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Drug related problems with Antiparkinsonian agents: consumer Internet reports versus published data
Author(s) -
Schröder Sabrina,
Zöllner York Francis,
Schaefer Marion
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.023
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1099-1557
pISSN - 1053-8569
DOI - 10.1002/pds.1415
Subject(s) - medicine , drug , observational study , adverse effect , pharmacovigilance , the internet , documentation , disease , intervention (counseling) , psychiatry , clinical trial , intensive care medicine , family medicine , pharmacology , world wide web , computer science , programming language
Purpose There is currently a lack of detailed information concerning drug related problems in the outpatient treatment of Parkinson's disease. Methods Problems associated with drug treatment communicated anonymously in Parkinson's disease online forums were therefore retrospectively searched and documented for 1 year. Results Based on postings concerning 12 drugs for the treatment of Parkinson's disease, a total of 238 drug related problems were identified and categorised using the Problem Intervention Documentation (PI‐Doc). Of these, 153 were adverse drug reactions. Adverse drug reactions associated with the skin were relatively common, but central effects such as cognitive or psychiatric changes, effects on the sleep/waking system and other problems like headache and dizziness accounted for the highest percentage of adverse events. A comparison with data from scientific literature revealed a number of differences. This means that an analysis of online forums detected a number of drug related problems that were otherwise largely invisible. These were mainly associated with the qualitative aspects of treatment such as medication handling, dosage and individual problems concerning adverse events. In addition, the described method of identifying and classifying drug related problems in Internet forums may also be seen as a contribution to the international discussion about consumer reports and pharmacovigilance. The information about adverse drug reactions given by Internet users can be seen as a valuable adjunct to clinical trial data and as being very timely with regard to the event itself. Conclusion Online forums may be considered as a suitable source of observational information to complement data from randomised clinical trials. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.