Adverse Drug Reactions In Response To Chemotherapy

Causes of hypersensitivity are unclear, but are possibly attributed to paclitaxel itself (via a non-IgE mechanism) or its excipient Cremophor EL via potential complement activation2. Premedication with dexamethasone, diphenhydramine, and a histamine h2 antagonist can reduce the incidence of such hypersensitivity reactions, but they are not entirely preventative. Boulanger et al3 reported the overall incidence of hypersensitivity reactions varied between 8-45%, where minor reactions occurred in 40% of patients and severe reactions occurred in 1.3% of patients. Such reactions predominantly occurred within the first minutes of infusion and mostly during the first or second infusion. In this study3, hypersensitivity reaction grades were determined utilizing the U.S. National Cancer Institute Grading System. In response to a hypersensitivity reaction, medications such as antihistamines, corticosteroids, epinephrine, bronchodilators, or oxygen can be used to alleviate symptoms3. After resolution of symptoms, paclitaxel can be

With access to prescription drugs, people are able to treat a multitude of diseases and illnesses. These drugs help deal with pain, inability to sleep, depression, and much more. Every day we are increasingly living in a world where there is better living through chemicals. However, what most do not seem to see is the rising tide of pain, illness, and ultimately death being caused by the pills people take every day. Most keep drugs in a special place in their minds, where they see them as harmless. Sadly, this is not the case, and in some cases our prescription drugs can be just as harmful as illegal drugs (King 68).

Adverse reactions to drugs are common and almost any drug can cause an adverse reaction.

The rate of death due to prescription drug abuse in the U.S. has escalated 313 percent over the past decade. According to the Congressional Quarterly Transcription’s article "Rep. Joe Pitt Holds a Hearing on Prescription Drug Abuse," opioid prescription drugs were involved in 16,650 overdose-caused deaths in 2010, accounting for more deaths than from overdoses of heroin and cocaine. Prescribed drugs or painkillers sometimes "condemn a patient to lifelong addiction," according to Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This problem not only affects the lives of those who overdose but it affects the communities as well due to the convenience of being able to find these items in drug stores and such.

Adverse drug events are estimated to cause more than 1 million emergency department visits and 125,000 hospital admissions, affecting approximately 1.9 million hospital stays each year.

The consumers receive the biggest lost because the use of wrong drug and doses can lead to other illness and even death.

With the growing reliance on medication therapy as the primary intervention for most illnesses, patients receiving medication interventions are exposed to potential harm as well as benefits. Medicines have proven to be very beneficial for treating illness and preventing disease. This success has resulted in a dramatic increase in medication use in recent times. Unfortunately, this increase in use and expansion of the pharmaceutical industry has also brought with it an increase in hazards, error and adverse events associated with medication use.

HC1: Personalized medicine is a relatively new practice that involves using a person’s genetics to make medical decisions about which direction to take in terms of disease prevention, treatment, and diagnosis (“Personalized medicine,” 2015). The practice of personalized medicine allows doctors to predict which diseases a certain individual may be susceptible to so that proper treatment less likely to harm the patient can be ensued. This could potentially be an incredible breakthrough in the field of science and medicine (“What is personalized”, n.d.).

The side effects of medicine can be as mild as a headache or as dangerous as coma and death. A personal example

In the same country where someone dies from accidental prescription drug overdose every 19 minutes, one must ask what is being done by the FDA to stop this. The answer to this is quite simple. Nothing. In the past thirty years, approximately 90% of all the new drugs approved by the FDA have had little to no advantages over existing drugs on the

List one or two adverse reactions for the selected agent(s) that would cause you to change therapy.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) (2013) reported that U.S. prescription drugs, especially opioids analgesics, have been increasingly involved in drug overdose deaths. Unfortunately, drug overdose deaths from prescription drugs, especially opioids analgesics outnumbered deaths related to motor vehicle accidents back in 2009. Actually, in 2010 only, 16,651 deaths were connected to opioids overdose, an increase of 60 percent of overdose losses from any other drug class, prescribed or illegal. Specifically, in Florida, the attorney general of Florida (2012) stated that an average of seven Floridians die every day as a result of overdose from prescription drugs, which is five times greater than losses from the use of all illegal drugs put together.

People all over the world, continue to be tendered prescription medication, which in many cases further complicate health issues with its myriad of side effects. In fact, statistics have shown that approximately 100,000 people around the world die as a result of prescription drugs annually (Smith, 2012). On the contrary, according

In 2010, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, about seven million people in the United States reported usage of prescription medications for nonmedical purposes. Over five million of those individuals reported abusing narcotic pain relievers. Pharmaceutical drug overdoses are now one of the leading causes of death in the nation. Although prescription drugs are necessary and lifesaving in many circumstances, the correlation between prescription drugs and prescription drug addiction is undeniable. The numbers are staggering and The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has now officially labeled prescription drug abuse as an epidemic.

In the article, Does the FDA Adequately Protect the Public? by Marc Ferris, he argues that the drug could pose a serious health threat. Most people take medications when they get sick, but taking medications could make their health worse. Ferris said that “but in recent years, the reputation of the nation's drug-safety system has been especially tarnished after several prescription drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) were later found to have dangerous side effects for some users, triggering voluntary manufacturer recalls” (par. 3). He claims that the FDA approved prescription drugs, and there were several cases that they recalled the drugs due to dangerous side effects which could lead to deaths. Therefore, he wonders