Drug-induced diseases (DIDs): An experience of a tertiary care teaching hospital from India

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Drug-induced diseases (DIDs) are well known but least studied. Data on DIDs from India are not available. Hence, this retrospective cross-sectional study was undertaken using suspected adverse drug reaction (ADR) data collected form Pharmacovigilance Programme of India (PvPI) to evaluate profile of DIDs over two years, in a tertiary care teaching hospital from north India. METHODS: The suspected ADRs in the form of DID were evaluated for drug and disease related variables and were classified in terms of causality. RESULTS: DID rate was 38.80 per cent. Mean duration of developing DIDs was 26.05 ± 9.6 days; 25.16 per cent had more than one co-morbid condition. Geriatric population (53.99%) accounted for maximum DIDs followed by adult (37.79%) and paediatric (8.21%). Maximum events were probable (93.98%) followed by possible (6.04%). All DIDs required intervention. Gastritis (7.43%), diarrhoea (5.92%), anaemia (4.79%), hypotension (2.77%), hepatic dysfunction (2.69%), hypertension (1.51%), myalgia (1.05%), and renal dysfunction (1.01%) were some of the DIDs. Anti tubercular treatment (ATT), anti retroviral treatment (ART), ceftriaxone injection, steroids, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, antimicrobials and anticancer drugs were found as commonly offending drugs. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: Our findings show that DIDs are a significant health problem in our country, which need more attention.