Klin Farmakol Farm. 2005;19(1):8-11

PROBLEMS OF DRUG RISK PERCEPTION IN MONOCOMPONENT ANALGESIC AGENTS IN RELATIONSHIP TO CONSUMPTION DATA IN SLOVAK REPUBLIC

Jana Tisoňová¹, Roman Hudec¹, Milan Kriška^1,2, Tatiana Magálová³, Viliam Foltán⁴

¹ Farmakologický ústav Lekárskej fakulty UK, Bratislava

² Nemocnica s poliklinikou Považská Bystrica

³ Sekcia bezpečnosti a klinického skúšania liečiv, Štátny ústav pre kontrolu liečiv, Bratislava

⁴ Katedra organizácie a riadenia Farmaceutická fakulta UK, Bratislava

Analgesic drug risk perception remains a topical problem of medical practice because it concerns a large proportion of professionally active patients. The OTC availability of analgesics could lead to serious health damage in patients with chronic pain syndromes. Drug risk perception is reflected mostly in preferential drug choice and adverse drug reaction reports. We analyzed the total consumption of analgesic drugs in Slovak Republic between 1998 and 2002 by using WHO methodology and compared it with available data on analgesic drug consumption from Finland as well as with data an adverse drug reaction reports in Slovak Republic. The dominance of diclofenac and  ibuprofen consumption with increasing trend has been observed within the group of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs in both countries. On the other hand the consumption of indometacine tended to decline. Opioid drugs prescription was markedly lower in Slovakia than in Finland, which could be related to exaggerated risk perception and may result in insufficient pain treatment. Reported adverse drug reactions reflected mostly obvious impacts of drug induced damage (skin reactions). Knowledge of adverse drug reactions including the ways of their prevention and more active participation of medical practitioner in the pharmacovigilance system could be a great contribution to analgetic treatment from both medicinal and ethical viewpoint.

Keywords: Key words: monocomponent (single) analgesics, non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs, opioid analgesics, drug consumption, adverse drug reactions.

Published: January 1, 2006  Show citation