Drugs with known adverse events

Last month, the research round-up provided you with an overview of three articles concerned with the management of hypertension. This month, we will review articles on drugs with known adverse events associated with normal use.

The first article looks at trends in tricyclic antidepressant prescribing and poisoning. The second reviews trends in fluoroquinolone prescribing in UK primary and secondary care. Finally, our third article deals with the experiences of asthma sufferers on their oral corticosteroid use and adverse effects.

This article, published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, examines prescribing trends of tricyclic antidepressants in England and Wales over a defined period. The rationale was that these drugs are no longer recommended by guidelines and are evidentially linked with harm due to their toxicity in overdose.

The study looked at prescribing data, mortality, hospital admission and clinical drug data to study the drug's use and impact. The drugs included were the eight licensed tricyclic antidepressants in use in the UK: amitriptyline, clomipramine, dosulepin, doxepin, imipramine, lofepramine, nortriptyline and trimipramine.