Citation

Urban M, Leššo R, Pelclpva D. Basic Clin. Pharmacol. Toxicol. 2016; 119(1): 115-119.

Affiliation

General University Hospital, Na Bojišti 1, 120 00, Prague, Czech Republic.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Nordic Pharmacological Society, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/bcpt.12578

PMID

26990237

Abstract

The purpose of the article was to study unintentional pharmaceutical-related poisonings committed by laypersons that were reported to the Toxicological Information Centre (TIC) in the Czech Republic. Identifying frequency, sources, reasons and consequences of the medication errors in laypersons could help to reduce the overall rate of medication errors. Records of medication error inquiries from 2013 and 2014 were extracted from the electronic database and the following variables were reviewed: drug class, dosage form, dose, age of the subject, cause of the error, time interval from ingestion to the call, symptoms, prognosis at the time of the call and first aid recommended. Of the calls, 1,354 met the inclusion criteria. Among them, central nervous system affecting drugs (23.6%), respiratory drugs (18.5%) and alimentary drugs (16.2%), were the most common drug classes involved in the medication errors. The highest proportion of the patients was in the youngest age subgroup 0-5 y-o (46%). The reasons for the medication errors involved the leaflet misinterpretation and mistaken dose (53.6%), mixing up medications (19.2%), attempting to reduce pain with repeated doses (6.4%), erroneous routes of administration (2.2%), psychiatric/elderly patients (2.7%), others (9.0%) or unknown (6.9%). A high proportion of children among the patients may be due to the fact that children's dosages for many drugs vary by their weight, and a lot of medications come in a variety of concentrations. Most overdoses could be prevented by safer labelling, proper cap closure systems for liquid products and medication reconciliation by both physicians and pharmacists. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Language: en