THE SOCIAL MEDIA AND DISCUSSION FORUMS AS A SOURCE OF INFORMATION ON ADVERSE DRUG REACTIONS
Journal Title: Българско списание за обществено здраве (Bulgarian Journal of Public Health) - Year 2018, Vol 0, Issue 1
Abstract
Medication therapy is an indispensable part of modern medicine, and any medicinal product must meet the requirements for quality, efficacy and safety. Ensuring drug safety and collecting information on adverse drug reactions is a process that continues throughout the entire life-cycle of medicinal products. This task is carried out through pharmacovigilance, using conventional as well as multiple innovative approaches. One of the current methods of generating information about suspected adverse drug reactions is the use of the Internet and publicly available user publications in social media and discussion forums. The purpose of the present study is to examine the Bulgarian discussion forums as a potential source of information on the occurrence of adverse drug reactions. Through the means of a specialized software program, we analysed user publications in two Bulgarian discussion forums, reporting the occurrence of adverse events when taking medicinal products containing one of six drug substances we had selected beforehand. Of the 3000 user posts surveyed, 60 messages were discovered that contained information about an adverse drug reaction when taking the respective medicines. The results show that the use of user messages in social media and discussion forums can have both qualitative and quantitative contributions to the pharmacovigilance system.
Authors and Affiliations
Krasen Tonev, Evgeni Grigorov, Valentina Belcheva, Ilko Getov
Keywords
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