Medicines can affect our personality in positive ways, but they may also lead to destructive behaviours that can damage our relationships, finances, and overall quality of life. Michele Fusaroli from the University of Bologna explains how to diagnose and treat drug-induced impulse control disorders.

Tune in to find out:

• Which medicines may cause impulsivity
• What the ‘four knights’ of impulsivity are
• How patient stories can help detect these conditions

Want to know more?

This review by Daniel Weintraub summarises twenty years of research on impulse control disorders in Parkinson’s disease.

In 2003, Driver-Dunckley and colleagues in the US published the first case series linking pathological gambling to dopamine agonists.

In 2016, the US Food and Drug Administration warned about impulse-control problems associated with the antipsychotic drug aripiprazole.

Michele and colleagues in Italy have investigated the mechanisms and burden of drug-induced impulsivity.

In their 2024 guidelines for managing impulsivity in Parkinson's disease, an expert consensus group highlighted the pivotal role of caregivers and of psychosocial interventions.

Finally, these are the Drug Safety Matters episodes cited in the interview:

• Catching black swans
• When drugs damage the liver
• Empowering patients as partners
• Why we should listen to patients

Join the conversation on social media
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Serious and unexpected adverse drug reactions – the ‘black swans’ of pharmacovigilance – can place enormous strain on safety monitoring systems. Drawing examples from the COVID-19 pandemic, François Montastruc from Toulouse University Hospital explains how we can get better at dealing with the unpredictable.

Tune in to find out:

• What Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s ‘black swan’ theory has to do with pharmacovigilance
• What makes an adverse drug reaction a black, white, or grey swan
• Why flexibility and communication are key to patient safety

Want to know more?

Here are the research articles cited in the episode:

• Quality of reporting of adverse events in clinical trials of COVID-19 drugs: systematic review
• Psychiatric disorders and hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19: a VigiBase study
• Hepatic disorders with the use of remdesivir for COVID-19
• Serious bradycardia and remdesivir for COVID-19: a new safety concern
• Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine-induced cerebral venous thrombosis and thrombocytopaenia: a missed opportunity for a rapid return of experience
• Atypical thrombosis associated with VaxZevria® (AstraZeneca) vaccine: data from the French network of regional pharmacovigilance centres
• Teaching pharmacovigilance to French medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic: interest of distance learning clinical reasoning sessions

If you enjoyed this podcast, check out these related episodes from the Drug Safety Matters archive:

• Reforming pharmacovigilance education
• Lessons in pandemic pharmacovigilance
• Intuition in pharmacovigilance

Join the conversation on social media
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About UMC
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The liver is the primary site for drug metabolism in the body, but it can be severely damaged by medicines or their toxic compounds. Rita Baião from the North Lisbon University Hospital Center reviews what pharmacovigilance professionals should know about drug-induced liver injury (DILI).

Tune in to find out:

• Who is most at risk of developing DILI
• How to diagnose the condition and control the damage
• How to assess case reports of DILI

Want to know more?

• This infographic in Nature Reviews nicely summarises the mechanisms, diagnosis, and management of drug-induced liver injury.
• In this report, the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences provides a global perspective on DILI detection, susceptibility factors, outcomes, and more.
• In this Drug Safety article, industry representatives outline how to identify, mitigate, and communicate the risk of DILI during drug development.
• The PRO-EURO DILI NETWORK coordinates research efforts on DILI across Europe and provides a forum to exchange knowledge and training on the topic. Similar initiatives include the Spanish DILI Registry and the Latin American DILI Network.
• The free online tool LiverTox contains up-to-date information on drug-induced liver injury for medicines and herbal products.

To learn more about post-marketing surveillance and clinical care of DILI, check out Uppsala Monitoring Centre’s free online course on the topic.

For more on the clustering algorithm vigiGroup, revisit this interview with UMC scientists Jim Barrett and Joe Mitchell.

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What did the drug safety community achieve in 2023 and how will the field develop in 2024? As the year comes to a close, we asked Angela Caro, president of the International Society of Pharmacovigilance (ISoP), to walk us through current and future trends in pharmacovigilance.

Tune in to find out:

• Why patient engagement is a growing priority
• What challenges exist in the Latin American region
• Which topics will be in the spotlight next year

Want to know more?

ISoP is a non-profit society open to anyone with an interest in pharmacovigilance.

Through 14 chapters and 13 special interest groups, the society works to enhance the safe and proper use of medicines across countries.

Their latest annual meeting took place in Bali, Indonesia in November 2023, while the next one will take place in Montreal, Canada in October 2024.

To learn more about ISoP’s activities in patient engagement and pharmacogenomics, listen to these episodes from the Drug Safety Matters archive:

• Empowering patients as partners
• Tailoring drug therapy to your genes

Join the conversation on social media
Follow us on X, LinkedIn, or Facebook and share your thoughts about the show with the hashtag #DrugSafetyMatters.

Got a story to share?
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About UMC
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To mark #MedSafetyWeek, which took place from 6–12 November, we’re releasing a special two-part episode on pharmacovigilance communication campaigns. In this second part, we hear from three #MedSafetyWeek veterans – Anne-Cécile Vuillemin from the Ministry of Health in Luxembourg, Ban Al-Shimran from the Iraqi Ministry of Health, and Frieda Shigwedha from the Therapeutic Information and Pharmacovigilance Centre in Namibia – about what makes a successful campaign.

Tune in to find out:

• Why you should always tailor your communication strategy to your setting
• How to deal with the financial, cultural, and logistical challenges of campaign planning
• What to keep in mind if you are new to #MedSafetyWeek

Want to know more?

You can read a summary of this episode on the Uppsala Reports news site.

To learn more about #MedSafetyWeek, check out the hashtag online and visit the campaign website, where you will also find free social media materials in several languages.

This is the second of a two-part episode on pharmacovigilance communication campaigns. Listen to the first part here.

Join the conversation on social media
Follow us on X, LinkedIn, or Facebook and share your thoughts about the show with the hashtag #DrugSafetyMatters.

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About UMC
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To mark #MedSafetyWeek, which takes place from 6–12 November, we’re releasing a special two-part episode on pharmacovigilance communication campaigns. In this first part, we speak to Mitul Jadeja from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in the UK about under-reporting and how initiatives like #MedSafetyWeek can help draw attention to medicines safety.

Tune in to find out:

• Why under-reporting plagues all pharmacovigilance systems
• What regulators can do to encourage people to report side effects
• Why we need reports from both patients and healthcare professionals

Want to know more?

Here are the studies cited in the episode:

• A BMJ study in 2022 measured the burden and associated cost of adverse drug reactions, polypharmacy and multimorbidity at a hospital in the UK.
• In 1976, Inman proposed a theoretical model, known as the ‘seven deadly sins’, to explain why healthcare professionals fail to report adverse drug reactions. This recent systematic review in Drug Safety expands on that.
• The SCOPE Joint Action project aimed to enhance pharmacovigilance in the EU and delivered practical guidance for regulators.
• The first UK study to compare Yellow Card reports from patients and healthcare professionals was published in 2012.

To join the #MedSafetyWeek campaign next week, follow the hashtag online and check out the campaign website for free social media materials.

Finally, don’t forget to tune in on 13 November for part 2 of this podcast, where we’ll hear from #MedSafetyWeek advocates in Iraq, Luxembourg, and Namibia about their experience with the campaign. Read a preview of the conversation on Uppsala Reports.

Join the conversation on social media
Follow us on X, LinkedIn, or Facebook and share your thoughts about the show with the hashtag #DrugSafetyMatters.

Got a story to share?
We’re always looking for new content and interesting people to interview. If you have a great idea for a show, get in touch!

About UMC
Read more about Uppsala Monitoring Centre and how we work to advance medicines safety.

Herbal remedies have been used for thousands of years to treat what ails us. Yet why do we still know so little about their potential side effects compared to modern medicines?

This episode is part of the Uppsala Reports Long Reads series – the most topical stories from UMC’s pharmacovigilance news site, brought to you in audio format. Find the original article here.

After the read, we speak to author Daniele Sartori to learn more about the challenges in herbal pharmacovigilance.

Tune in to find out:

• Why the risks of herbals are rarely discussed
• How to encourage safety data collection for herbals
• How to improve herbal nomenclature and regulation

Want to know more?

Here are some of the resources cited in the episode:

• Underreporting of adverse reactions to herbal remedies is driven by our attitude towards herbals themselves, but also by a lack of training on herbal medicines in healthcare curricula.
• It is possible to safely use herbal medicines together with other medicines, but we must keep in mind some critical issues related to their interaction.
• Simple videos can dramatically increase public awareness of ADR reporting schemes.
• Kew Gardens’ Medicinal Plant Names Services offers a systematic overview of medicinal plants and their accepted scientific names.
• The American Botanical Council suggests methods to uncover attempts to adulterate plant extracts.

For a comprehensive overview of herbal pharmacovigilance, check out this recent book by Joanne Barnes and colleagues covering advances, challenges, and international perspectives in the field.

For more on Daniele’s scoping review of signals or the thorny nomenclature of medicinal plants, listen to these episodes from the Drug Safety Matters archive:

• The evidence for signals
• Navigating the plant names jungle

Finally, don’t forget to ­subscribe to the monthly Uppsala Reports newsletter for free regular updates from the world of pharmacovigilance.

Join the conversation on social media
Follow us on X, LinkedIn, or Facebook and share your thoughts about the show with the hashtag #DrugSafetyMatters.

Got a story to share?
We’re always looking for new content and interesting people to interview. If you have a great idea for a show, get in touch!

About UMC
Read more about Uppsala Monitoring Centre and how we work to advance medicines safety.

A patient's perspective can ensure safe medical care and lead to new insights that traditional research may overlook. But how do we best harness that perspective to improve patient outcomes?

This episode is part of the Uppsala Reports Long Reads series – the most topical stories from UMC’s pharmacovigilance news site, brought to you in audio format. Find the original article here.

After the read, we speak to Manal Younus, who authored the article, to learn more about patient engagement and its benefits for medicines safety.

Tune in to find out:

• How regulators and healthcare professionals can effectively engage patients
• How patients can get involved in drug safety monitoring
• What the pharmacovigilance community learned from the valproate case

Want to know more?

In 2022, the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences (CIOMS) published a comprehensive report on patient involvement in the development, regulation and safe use of medicines. They also recorded a webinar to summarise the report’s main conclusions.

The International Society of Pharmacovigilance (ISoP) runs a patient engagement group to advance patient involvement in the safety monitoring of medicines.

The Valproate toolkit, developed by the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), supports healthcare professionals in advising women of childbearing age about the risks and benefits of valproate therapy.

PatientsLikeMe is a digital platform where patients can share personal health stories, connect to peers, and learn about different conditions and treatments.

For more on patient engagement and communication, check out these episodes from the Drug Safety Matters archive:

• Why we should listen to patients
• The challenge of rare diseases
• How to talk about risks

Finally, don’t forget to ­subscribe to the monthly Uppsala Reports newsletter for free regular updates from the world of pharmacovigilance.

Join the conversation on social media
Follow us on X, LinkedIn, or Facebook and share your thoughts about the show with the hashtag #DrugSafetyMatters.

Got a story to share?
We’re always looking for new content and interesting people to interview. If you have a great idea for a show, get in touch!

About UMC
Read more about Uppsala Monitoring Centre and how we work to advance medicines safety.