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How Worried Should We Be?

David W. Bates, MD, MSc

JAMA. 1998;279:1216-1217.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Physicians can hardly pick up a medical journal or a newspaper today without reading about some new medication, and how it promises to completely change the course of a disease or relieve some troublesome symptom. Indeed, the wonders of pharmacology are numerous. It is clear, for example, that after a myocardial infarction patients will live longer if they take -blockers ¹ and that patients with congestive heart failure live longer and feel better when they take angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors.² However, medications are a double-edged sword.

Much of the recent work on problems with medications has focused primarily on errors in medication use, which are important.³ But, adverse drug reactions (ADRs) that are not preventable given our current state of knowledge are a more common problem, with a greater human burden. In this issue of JAMA, Lazarou and colleagues⁴ attempt to assess the extent of this . . . [Full Text of this Article]

From the Deparment of Clinical and Quality Analysis, Partners Healthcare Systems, Boston, Mass.

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