A new patient-centered classification system for adverse drug reactions

Abstract

Introduction: Long term medication adherence is often determined by patients’ perceptions of a drug’s effectiveness and potential adverse reactions. Adverse drug reactions are now listed in manufacturing package inserts in a manner that does not emphasize either the expected incidence or risk level. Aims and Objectives: We discuss and propose a new format for listing adverse drug reactions to be in a more patient centered classification system. Methods: We explored a variety of communication methods observed for illustration of risk in medical literature. Results: We found the methodology of risk disclosure used by many institutional review boards designed for full disclosure of potential presenting adverse effects in research may be generalized to clinical communication of approved medications. This takes the form of grid with risk and probability as the axis (Table1). Providers and patients should be more aware of what adverse reactions would be expected or likely to occur versus a simple listing of reactions with incidences. This allows to focus on discussing interventions to protect against the likely/expected adverse effects, while allaying fears of occurrence of less likely effects. Conclusions: We believe this would lead to improved provider and patient understanding of a medications adverse reactions and ultimately to improved patient adherence and outcomes.