Washington: A study by Johns Hopkins researchers shows that a fifth of US neurologists appear unaware of serious drug safety risks associated with various anti-epilepsy drugs, potentially jeopardizing the health of patients who could be just as effectively treated with safer alternative medications.
The findings suggest that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) needs a better way to communicate information to specialists about newly discovered safety risks, the researchers say, since the warnings are in many cases not getting through to doctors making important prescribing decisions.
“If their doctors were more educated about the risks,” Dr Krauss says, “these patients may have avoided these severe hypersensitivity reactions.”
“The FDA needs to do better getting the warnings to prescribing doctors,” he says. “There has to be a direct way to communicate risks without overwhelming physicians with messages.”[Source]
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