Abstract
BACKGROUND: Drug related admissions have significantly increased over the past few decades. According to various studies on drug related hospital admissions, it was estimated that around 5-10% of hospital admissions were due to drug related problems (DRP), in which 50% of them are avoidable. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to derive results from various studies conducted on drug related hospital admissions and have an overall view about the incidence, frequency, cost of treatment, major causative drugs, problems for drug related hospital admissions, and preventable drug related admissions and summarize the factors responsible for the occurrence of DRP. METHOD: Relevant literatures related to 'drug related hospital admissions' were obtained from PubMed database. Articles that were published from October 2007 to September 2012 were collected. All the studies being shown in the search results were considered for the study irrespective of the specialty department. RESULTS: A total of 366 articles were found based on the keyword 'drug related hospital admission', 'drug related problem admission', and 'adverse drug event admissions' search. Out of which 49 articles were identified to be showing relevance to the study. Non-English, abstract-only articles, and out-patient adverse drug reaction (ADR) studies were filtered from 49 articles. Finally 15 articles were taken up for the study. Systemic analysis was made on these articles and the results were summarized. CONCLUSION: Most of DRP studies were retrospective, multicenter studies conducted in general populations in Europe. The main objective of the studies was to estimate DRP frequency, incidence, risk factors and trends of DRP hospital admissions. Anti-neoplastic agents, CVS drugs and CNS drugs were related to most of the drug related problems. These studies concluded polypharmacy and older age were the major risk factors for developing drug related problems. It was found that the cost for the management of DRP was directly proportional to severity.