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Challenges and Opportunities for Pharmacoepidemiology in Drug‐Therapy Decision Making
Author(s) -
Etminan Mahyar,
Gill Sudeep,
FitzGerald Mark,
Samii Ali
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
the journal of clinical pharmacology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.92
H-Index - 116
eISSN - 1552-4604
pISSN - 0091-2700
DOI - 10.1177/0091270005283285
Subject(s) - pharmacoepidemiology , medicine , adverse effect , drug , intensive care medicine , population , drug reaction , medline , alternative medicine , randomized controlled trial , clinical study design , adverse drug reaction , clinical trial , pharmacology , pathology , environmental health , political science , medical prescription , law
Pharmacoepidemiology is a relatively new and evolving science that attempts to quantify mainly adverse drug events and patterns of drug use in a large population. The strength of pharmacoepidemiology over randomized trials is the ability to quantify rare adverse events that may occur over long periods. Recently, discordance in the results of pharmacoepidemiologic studies has made it difficult for clinicians and policy makers to make informed drug‐therapy decisions. This commentary addresses the strength of pharmacoepidemiology and the advances in the methodology of pharmacoepidemiologic studies over the years. We also discuss the potential problem of discordant results and urge pharmacoepidemiologists to develop good practice guidelines for the conduct of pharmacoepidemiologic studies.