An evaluation of knowledge, attitude and perception about adverse drug reactions and pharmacovigilance among intern doctors in a medical college teaching hospital of Sangli

Abstract

Background: Underreporting of various adverse drug reactions (ADRs) by consultants is a common incurable problem. National pharmacovigilance program is one of the ongoing programs to monitor the adverse drug reactions & reporting at the earliest to the nearby AMCs. As medical interns are budding doctors, the focus of this study was to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and perception about ADRs and pharmacovigilance in them. Methods: A cross section questionnaire-based study was conducted after approval by our institutional ethics committee pretested and validated questions consisting of 20 questions (knowledge, attitude, perception) were administrated to medical interns. The filled questionnaires were collected and analysed. Results: In our study, medical interns have fair enough idea about ADR and pharmacovigilance. In knowledge domain they were aware of term ADRs (100%), pharmacovigilance (72.6%). In attitude domain majority of interns (80.6%) known availability of ADR forms, compulsory of pharmacovigilance unit (90.3%). In perception domain very poor response from interns, not even a single intern had reported any ADR filled form and they don’t know meaning of rechallenge and de-challenge, very few interns (9.7%) know how to manage the ADRs in emergency conditions. Conclusions: Under reporting problem can be improved by doing more teaching activities at undergraduate level and intern’s level including various workshops, CMEs, problem-based teaching of adverse reactions in their curriculum. These exercises will improve their reporting frequency and sensitize the interns from the undergraduate days itself in their upcoming clinical practice in community.