Adverse Drug Reactions of Anti-hypertensives in Medicine Department of A Tertiary Care Hospital: A Twelve Month Observation

Background: Cardiovascular diseases are one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity around the globe. Hypertension is directly responsible for 57% of all stroke deaths and 24% of all coronary heart disease deaths in India. As more and more anti-hypertensive drugs are coming in market it is necessary to keep a check on its various unknown ADRs due to wide ethnic variability of the population.
Methods: An observational, cross sectional study conducted in the Department of Pharmacology in collaboration with department of Medicine, at Grant Govt. Medical College & Sir JJ Group of Hospital, Mumbai among the hypertensive patients over a period of 12 months.
Results: A total of 853 hypertensive patients were observed in this study. Among them total of 166 ADRs were observed. Beta Blockers (BB) were associated with maximum number of ADRs. 48 (30%) ADRs were observed in age group of 51-60 years.114 (71.25%) ADRs were type A while 46 (28.75%) were type B. Severity assessment showed 102(63.75%) ADRs to be moderate. Causality assessment showed 117 (73.12%) ADRs in the probable category. Bronchospasm, pedal edema, cough, and hypotension were the most common ADR observed due to BB, calcium channel blockers, Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors and Angiotensin receptor blockers, respectively. The maximum number of ADRs (16.25%) was reported for Atenolol. One hundred and five (65.6%) ADRs resolved without any interventions and thirteen ADRs resolved with interventions.
Conclusion: Among the antihypertensive drug, maximum ADRs (30%) were reported for beta blockers. Most ADRs of antihypertensive drugs were moderate in severity and the causality analysis revealed them as ‘probable’.