Knowledge of adverse drug reaction reporting in first year postgraduate doctors in a medical college

INTRODUCTION: Poor reporting of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) by doctors is a major hindrance to successful pharmacovigilance. The present study was designed to assess first-year residents’ knowledge of ADR reporting. METHODS: First-year postgraduate doctors at a private medical college completed a structured questionnaire. The responses were analyzed by nonparametric methods. RESULTS: All doctors were aware of the term “adverse drug reactions.” Fifty percent of the doctors reported being taught about ADR reporting during their undergraduate teaching, and 50% had witnessed ADRs in their internship training. Ten percent of patients suffering an ADR observed and reported by doctors required prolonged hospitalization for treatment as a result. Only 40% of interns reported the ADRs that they observed, while 60% did not report them. Twenty-eight percent reported ADRs to the head of the department, 8% to an ADR monitoring committee, and 4% to the pharmacovigilance center. Eighty-six percent of the doctors surveyed felt that a good knowledge of undergraduate clinical pharmacology therapeutics would have improved the level of ADR reporting. CONCLUSION: The knowledge of first-year doctors regarding ADR reporting is quite poor. There is a dire need to incorporate ADR reporting into undergraduate teaching, and to reinforce this during internships and periodically thereafter.