05.01 Pharmacovigilance

Pharmacovigilance is the part of pharmacology that relates to the detection, assessment, understanding, and prevention of adverse drug effects and adverse drug interactions. Initially we will consider adverse drug effects and their monitoring, then discuss pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic examples of adverse drug interactions, and finally discuss therapeutic drug monitoring. It is not possible to discuss all the adverse drug effects or adverse drug interactions. This chapter is just an introduction to pharmacovigilance. A good source of information about adverse drug effects and adverse drug interactions is the Australian Medicines Handbook, and an alternative is MIMS. When adverse drug effects or adverse drug interactions have been identified, the ideal solution (if possible), is to avoid the drug or drug combination.