Drug safety

INTRODUCTION: Manual identification of case narratives with specific relevant information can be challenging when working with large numbers of adverse event reports (case series). The process can be supported with a search engine, but buil…

BACKGROUND: Antithrombotic therapies are associated with an increased bleeding risk. Abnormal uterine bleeding data have been reported in clinical trials of patients with venous thromboembolism (VTE), but data are limited for patients with …

INTRODUCTION: The European Medicines Agency has suspended the use of ulipristal acetate (UPA) in the treatment of uterine fibroids and is reassessing its association with a risk of liver injury. OBJECTIVES: Our objectives were to character…

INTRODUCTION: In the treatment of the individual patient, a vision is to achieve the best possible balance between benefit and harm. Such tailored therapy relies upon the identification and characterisation of risk factors for adverse drug …

INTRODUCTION: Recombinant human luteinizing hormone (r-hLH) is used in a fixed-ratio combination with recombinant human follicle-stimulating hormone (r-hFSH) for the stimulation of follicular development. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this a…

BACKGROUND: Pharmacovigilance signal detection largely relies on individual case reports, but longitudinal health data are being explored as complementary information sources. Research to date has focused on the ability of epidemiological m…

Menorrhagia affects the lives of many women. The assessment of menstrual flow is highly subjective and gauging the severity of the condition by objective assessment of menstrual blood loss is impractical. In treating menorrhagia, the primar…

The growth of a uterine leiomyoma growth stops and regresses after the menopause suggesting that leiomyoma growth is dependent on ovarian steroids. Therefore, estrogen has received much attention as the major factor responsible for the deve…

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are frequently prescribed to women of child-bearing age. Three case series highlight the possibility of a link between NSAIDs and reversible infertility. The pharmacological target of NSAIDs is …

Medical treatments of endometriosis rely upon the hormonal dependence of endometriotic implants for further growth and extension. The cyclic nature of the symptoms means they may be helped by agents that suppress menstruation both from the …

A large number of drugs may interfere with the hair cycle and produce hair loss. Drugs may affect anagen follicles through 2 main different modalities: (i) by inducing an abrupt cessation of mitotic activity in rapidly dividing hair matrix …

Estrogen therapy is extremely effective in relieving menopausal symptoms such as hot flushes, night sweats, urogenital atrophy and certain psychological symptoms. The short term side effects from this therapy are usually mild and self-limit…