Prevalence and Severity of Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) in Patients Subjected to Different Anti-psychotic Drugs in an Out-Patient Department of a Psychiatry Hospital in Kashmir; A Prospective Observational Study

Background: Adverse effects are usually dose dependent and can be influenced by patient characteristics including age and gender and these confounding factors should be considered in clinical practice and in the interpretation of research data. Selection of an antipsychotic drug should be on an individual patient basis. Patients should be involved in prescribing decisions and this should involve discussion about adverse drug reactions and their severity. Objective: Current study was carried out with the aim to look into the severity with which the adverse drug reactions were associated with various antipsychotics used in our day to day practice. Materials and Methods: It was a prospective observational study conducted over a period of one year in the Outpatient Department of Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (IMHNS), Government Medical College Srinagar. An assessment of severity was done using modified Hartwig and Siegel scale. Results: A total of 100 ADRs of different types were observed in 77 patients out of total 177 patients included in our study, with an overall prevalence of about 43.5%. Most (83.0%) of the ADRs were mild in severity while ADRs moderate in severity were found in only 17 (17.0%) according to modified Hartwig and Siegel scale. None of the reported ADRs belonged to ‘severe’ or ‘lethal’ category. There was no statistically significant relationship between development of ADRs with age (p=0.8) or sex (p=0.6) of the patients included in the study. Conclusion: Although with the utilization of antipsychotics, the prevalence of ADRs in our study was as high 43.5%, most of them (83%) were mild in nature and only 17% of them were of moderate severity and none of our patients showed the development of any severe ADR which would lead them to discontinue the therapy.