SOURCES OF DRUG INFORMATION.
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Anecdotal case reports contribute about one-third of the published literature on adverse drug reactions and interactions, but are regarded as providing poor-quality evidence. However, they can occasionally provide proof of cause and effect, and there are many other reasons for publishing them. Because an anecdote is a narrative, narratological paradigms from literature, art, and music can show how we can make evidential use of anecdotes. Useful paradigms are the dramatic unities (of time, place, and action), comprehensive catalogues, and pattern formations. Here I give examples of each of these types of paradigm and show how they can be used to interpret anecdotes about adverse drug reactions and interactions. The dramatic unities show how a proper classification of adverse drug reactions can be achieved, according to dose-relation, time-course, and susceptibility factors; use of this classification should improve the evidential use of anecdotal reports. A high background incidence of the effect (the medical equivalent of subplots, which violate the unity of action) makes it more difficult to detect adverse drug effects using anecdotal reports. To make best evidential use of the corpus of anecdotal reports of adverse drug reactions, comprehensiveness is important: each suspected adverse reaction should be reported in detail and reactions should be reported in sufficient numbers for proper classification and for patterns to be recognized. One form of pattern recognition, teleoanalysis of data, should, when possible, include not only randomized controlled trials and observational studies, but also case series and anecdotal reports.
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Intrauterine contraceptive devices (IUDs) are a popular method of contraception worldwide. However, some serious problems have been associated with them. Finland has developed and now manufactures and exports IUDs. Therefore, drug control and the quality of drug information existing in Finland are significant for other countries, as well. This study analyzes the information in the Finnish commercial drug catalog on copper-releasing IUDs and compares it with the scientific literature, the instructions from the licensing authority, and material in its U.S. counterpart, during the last two decades. The results indicate that the distribution of scientific knowledge to the drug catalogs has often been slow. In the early 1980s Finnish manufacturers did not give any practical information on their products, and then and later the Finnish catalog was less comprehensive than the U.S. catalog. The variations in the control system in different nations were reflected in the contents of the Finnish catalog. For practitioners, drug catalogs are important sources of medical information. The results of this study demonstrate (1) that more attention should be paid to the contents of these catalogs, and (2) the continuous need for up-to-date, unbiased drug information.
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Regulation of drugs from the public administration is an activity which is produced in different countries independently from the sanitary model they own. In the field of public financing of drugs there have been several measures to improve the efficiency of their use. However, the analysis of the impact of these measures is complex and this may justify the shortage of objectivable results, especially at long term. The objective of this study is to perform a systematic review of such measures due to the need to have information about the different alternatives before making a decision. The introduction of an isolated measure is in many cases compensated by other changes in other regulating or aiding fields which suggests the creation of an integral strategy which affects different fields (supply/demand of drugs and prescribers). It seems necessary to suggest a social debate taking as a basis the scientific information available at the moment and promote the taking of decisions which lead to a rational use of the available pharmacological resources.
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The increasing volume of calls received by a poisons centre, such as the National Poisons Unit, Guy's Hospital, London is placing the present information services under escalating pressure. Recent developments in the technologies used to store and manipulate data have resulted in a number of public and private computerized systems being made available. In order to maximize the benefit of the new technologies to a Poisons Centre Information Service it would be desirable to create an integrated system to link the currently unrelated systems. Such an integrated system would be capable of retrieving bibliographic information from bibliographic files similar to MEDLINE and EMBASE and data from source information files such as RTECS and ECDIN, with the user only having to make one enquiry. This paper examines the current position with regard to computerized information sources in toxicology and discusses how an integrated system might improve the efficiency of a poisons centre's information retrieval service and outlines some of the obstacles to the development of such a system.