Drug-related problems : a cornerstone for pharmaceutical care

Abstract

Drug related problems are an essential term in the world of pharmaceutical care. Other terms can be used for the same concept, such as medication errors, but this term is different from drug related problems. The errors refer to the mistakes in the process that could lead to problems. Drug related problems can originate when prescribing, dispensing or taking/administering medicines. Drug use problems by the patient are probably the most frequent, but are not always noticed. There are several classifications for drug related problem, but in this article the classification of the Pharmaceutical Care Network Europe (PCNE) is used to clarify the concepts. Some of the known classifications seem difficult to be used in practice, and especially the reproducibility of the existing classifications should be researched further.