Register for email alerts and news feeds:
This journal | BMJ Group
rss
Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin 1995;33:33-35; doi:10.1136/dtb.1995.33533
Copyright © 1995 by the BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.

Risk:benefit analysis of drugs in practice

For each drug there is a balance between risk and benefit, but how that balance is struck varies. The licensing authority considers the health implications for the population exposed; for the patient the assessment relates to the outlook for the individual; prescribers need to reconcile both approaches and in doing so must satisfy the patient's right to choose whether to take the treatment. Problems arise if the doctor and patient fail to communicate, if risk:benefit data are not available or if the patient's perception of risk or benefit differs from that of the doctor. These topics, together with a view of risks and benefits from the pharmaceutical industry, were considered at the recent Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin symposium entitled "The Risk:Benefit Analysis of Drugs in Practice". In this article we summarise key points and opinions raised in talks and discussion as they relate to the Committee on Safety of Medicines (addressed by Professor Michael Rawlins), drug manufacturers (Dr Karen Summers), the prescriber (Dr Janine Mansi, Professor Larry Ramsay and Dr Isabel Sanderson) and the consumer (Professor Richard Eiser and Dame Rachel Waterhouse).


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

  • (2009). The licensing of medicines in the UK. DTB 47: 45-47 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Koopmans, P P (2002). Clinical endpoints in trials of drugs for cancer: time for a rethink?. BMJ 324: 1389-1391 [Full Text]  
  • Greenhalgh, T. (1997). How to read a paper: Papers that report drug trials. BMJ 315: 480-483 [Full Text]  

This Article

Services
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with

Register for email alerts

Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.

Coming soon!

The DTB archive back to 1962, volume 1, issue 1 will soon be available.