Medication Safety
Adverse drug reactions and overdose toxicity
All medications have side effects and can potentially result in toxicity if overdosed. Our research considers the prevalence of adverse drugs reactions and toxicity to a broad range of medications and in specific patient populations, in order to identify particularly high-risk medications and better tailor patient treatment.
We are currently examining the association between medications and the risk of falling in patients with hip fractures, characterizing side effects to fingolimod, and determining the role of QT-prolonging substances in forensic cases.
We have a close collaboration with the clinical departments at Aarhus University Hospital and Aalborg University Hospital, and with the Department of Forensic Medicine, Aarhus University.
Medication errors
Medication errors are frequent, in particular during transfer of care between sectors or departments. The majority of these are without clinical relevance, however approximately 10% of medical errors result in direct harm to the patient (i.e., increased morbidity or mortality), longer hospital stays, and additional procedures/treatments.
Our department is interested in, and has experience with, consensus studies to develop common definitions regarding medication errors, validation studies of methods to quantify medication errors, monitoring of medication errors, and randomized controlled trials of interventions to prevent medication errors.
Off-label drug use
Off-label drug use is the prescription of medications for an indication not approved by a regulatory body such as the European Medicines Agency. Our department is particularly interested in the off-label use of medications in children. The majority of drugs are approved for use in the adult population only, as data regarding clinical effect, side effects, dosing, and pharmacokinetics in the pediatric population are frequently lacking. Clinicians are however permitted to use their clinical judgement and prescribe drugs off-label. Consequently, the knowledge from clinical trials in adult patients, in clinical practice, is often extrapolated, off-label, to use in children.
Prior projects at the department have for instance focused on the off-label use of sedatives, hypnotics and psychiatric drugs in children and adolescents, primarily through the use of nationwide registry-based studies.
Selected publications:
Improving Medication Safety in Psychiatry - A Controlled Intervention Study of Nurse Involvement in Avoidance of Potentially Inappropriate Prescriptions. Soerensen AL, Lisby M, Nielsen LP, Poulsen BK, Mainz J. Basic Clin Pharmacol Toxicol. 2018 Aug;123(2):174-181.
Life-Threatening and Fatal Adverse Drug Events in a Danish University Hospital. Tchijevitch OA, Nielsen LP, Lisby M. J Patient Saf. 2017 Jul 27.
Medication errors involving anticoagulants: Data from the Danish patient safety database. Henriksen JN, Nielsen LP, Hellebek A, Poulsen BK. Pharmacol Res Perspect. 2017 Apr 3;5(3):e00307.
Trends in Off-Label Prescribing of Sedatives, Hypnotics and Antidepressants among Children and Adolescents - A Danish, Nationwide Register-Based Study. Nielsen ES, Rasmussen L, Hellfritzsch M, Thomsen PH, Nørgaard M, Laursen T. Basic Clin Pharmacol Toxicol. 2017 Apr;120(4):360-367.
Parkinsonism as a side effect of infliximab. Henriksen JN, Eriksson BO. BMJ. Case Rep. 2016 May 5;2016.
Off-label prescribing of psychotropic drugs in a Danish child and adolescent psychiatric outpatient clinic. Nielsen ES, Hellfritzsch M, Sørensen MJ, Rasmussen H, Thomsen PH, Laursen T. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2016 Jan;25(1):25-31.
