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How Using Social Media Could Minimize Adverse Effects From Medicine

Adverse Drug Reactions (ADR) are the 4th leading cause of death in America. More people die from adverse effects from medicine than from pulmonary disease, diabetes, AIDS, pneumonia, accidents, and automobile deaths. People get sick or die because they mix the wrong combination of prescription drugs plus add over-the-counter remedies. According to the Federal Drug Administration, ADRs are the result of the increasing number of drugs that are available, the volume of drugs that are prescribed overall and multiple medications that are being prescribed to the same person.

What can you do today to protect you and your family from an Adverse Drug Reaction ? To find out, I spoke with both…

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Featured

 The New Silent Killer

Approximately 2.74 million people are being hospitalized in the United States annually due to serious adverse drug reactions. Adverse drug reactions now tie with stroke as the 4th leading cause of death.

Articles of Interest

Tennessee Girl Creates Algorithm to Stop Adverse Reactions to Prescription Drugs

Sofia Tomov, 12, has made it her mission to help doctors prescribe the correct drugs to their patients.

A Very Personal Problem

Now personalized genetic medicine offers tests to avoid dangerous drug reactions—yet doctors are reluctant to use them.

CYP Testing to Help Prevent Dangerous Adverse Drug Reactions

Few people may know that there are DNA tests that can identify individuals who might be prone to these adverse drug reactions.

Death by Prescription

We can criticize and/or envy the harried lifestyle of the rich and famous, but in fact they make up a very small percentage of the thousands of accidental prescription medicine deaths each year; the great majority of these deaths happen to ordinary folks like your son or your sister.

Failing To Report Severe Drug Side Effects: A National Embarrassment

You might think that 20 years later, in an Internet age with powerful information technology tools in so many hands, that drug side effects would routinely be reported in detail, and in real-time. Nope.

Is Your Medicine Right for Your Metabolism?

More genetic tests aim to help predict how people might respond to many common medications.

Prescription Drugs - Who's Minding The Store?

The most common adverse drug reactions are the effects from the drug itself - a virtual double-edged sword!

The FDA's Dueling Priorities

The organization’s challenge is balancing drugs’ safety and effectiveness.

The Over-The-Counter Drug Reactions You Should Watch Out For

If you often — or even just sometimes — take an OTC medication, it’s worth knowing the potential side effects, just in case you ever feel funny or sick and aren’t sure why.

Why Medication Can Be Dangerous to Your Health

Did you know that the majority of FDA approved drugs have serious potential side effects that were not detected before marketing approval?

Resources

MyRxProfile

Adverse drug interactions are the 4th leading cause of death in America. Stay informed and safe with MyRxProfile.

RxISK

RxISK is a free, independent drug safety website to help you weigh the benefits of any medication against its potential dangers.

Adverse Drug Reaction Bulletin

Adverse Drug Reaction Bulletin provides comprehensive coverage in the field of adverse drug reactions. Each issue contains an invited article on a topic of current interest, dealing with specific conditions from drug-induced lung disorders to drug-induced sexual dysfunction, or types of drugs from lipid-lowering agents to poisons antidotes. This bimonthly journal's articles are timely, succinct and fully referenced.

Bad Drug

Your resource for adverse reactions and drug recalls

Health Action International

Health Action International is the only non-governmental organisation that is entirely dedicated to strengthening medicines policy to improve public health. Our staff and global network of independent experts in 70 countries share information and expertise to solve medicines access and use problems around the world. We want all people to receive the right medicine, in the right dose, for the right amount of time, at a price they can afford.

MedEffect Canada

MedEffect Canada provides consumers, patients, and health professionals with easy access to: ##Report an adverse reaction or side effect; ##Obtain new safety information on drugs and other health products; and ##Learn and better understand the importance of reporting side effects.

MedWatch

Your FDA gateway for clinically important safety information and reporting serious problems with human medical products.

SIDER

SIDER contains information on marketed medicines and their recorded adverse drug reactions. The information is extracted from public documents and package inserts. The available information include side effect frequency, drug and side effect classifications as well as links to further information, for example drug–target relations.

YellowCard

The Yellow Card Scheme is vital in helping the MHRA monitor the safety of all healthcare products in the UK to ensure they are acceptably safe for patients and those that use them. Reports can be made for all medicines...