Abstract

Background: Underreporting of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) by clinician is a common problem. As interns will be budding doctors to serve the community, this study was undertaken to evaluate knowledge, attitude and perception about ADR and pharmacovigilance in them. Aims and
Objective: To assess knowledge, attitude and perceptions of interns about ADR and pharmacovigilance program andfind out possible ways of improving spontaneous reporting.
Materials and Methods:Across- section questionnaire-based study was conducted after approval by ethics committee. Pretested and validated questions consisting of 20 questions (knowledge 12, attitude 4, andperception 4)wereadministeredto68interns.The filled questionnaires were collected and analyzed on Microsoft Excel sheet. Result: All interns were well aware of term ‘‘pharmacovigilance.’’TheyhaveanideatowheretheyshouldreportADRandaboutthenearestAMCcenterbutonly3.33%were able to differentiate adverse effect and adverse event. Only 27.94% of the interns were revealing clear knowledge about who couldreportandtypesoftheADRtobereportedatadversedrugmonitoringcenter.Nobodywasabletoexplain ‘‘rechallenge’’or ‘‘dechallenge’’ in reference to ADRs 100% correctly. Majority of interns (85.29%) had not reported even single case of ADR till date. Poor reporting among interns were because of various reasons, which were busy in preparing postgraduate entrance examination (51.47%), problems in communicating patients (22.06%), inadequate training (22.06%), unavailability ADR form (4.41%),andoverloadofwork(1.47%).Majorityofinterns(73.52%)werecomfortableinADRreportingbymeansoftelephone. Of 68 interns, 48 (70.59%) supported that ADR reporting exercises should be taught in pharmacology practical classes. Conclusion: The deficit in ADR reporting can be resolved if we adequately train our undergraduates regarding ADR reporting system, how to report, importance of reporting, and their obligation to report.