Role of US poison centers in adverse drug reactions monitoring.

Poison centers are a valuable source of adverse drug reaction reporting in the US based on their ready access, familiarity with adverse events, the training of staff health care professionals, and computerized case documentation. During 1997, 35,563 suspected adverse drug reactions were reported by poison centers to their national database. Of these, 71% involved individuals over 19 y of age, 62% were treated at a non-health care facility, 64% experienced no effect or a minor effect, and 6% were potentially symptomatic but lost to follow-up. There were 18 fatalities. Although US poison centers currently provide input to reporting adverse drug reactions, the data collection system could be better integrated with the FDA MedWatch spontaneous adverse drug reactions reporting program on a more systematic basis to allow greater input and harmonization of the 2 datasets.