A computerized system for detecting signals due to drug-drug interactions in spontaneous reporting systems

AIMS In spontaneous reporting systems (SRS), there is a growing need for the automated detection of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) resulting form drug-drug interactions. In addition, special attention is also needed for systems facilitating automated data preprocessing. In our study, we set up a computerized system to signal possible drug-drug interactions by which data acquisition and signal detection could be carried out automatically and the process of data preprocessing could also be facilitated. METHODS This system was developed with Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 and Microsoft Access was used as the database. Crude ADR reports submitted to Shanghai SRS from January 2007 to December 2008 were included in this study. The logistic regression method, the Q shrinkage measure method, an additive model and a multiplicative model were used for automatic detection of drug-drug interactions where two drugs were used concomitantly. RESULTS A total of 33 897 crude ADR reports were acquired from the SRS automatically. The 10 drug combinations most frequently reported were found and the 10 most suspicious drug-drug ADR combinations for each method were detected automatically after the performance of the system. CONCLUSIONS Since the detection of drug-drug interaction depends upon the skills and memory of the professionals involved, is time consuming and the number of reports is increasing, this system might be a promising tool for the automated detection of possible drug-drug interactions in SRS.