Medication side effects result in 700 deaths a year in Switzerland
In Switzerland, 32,000 people were hospitalised each year between 2012 and 2019 due to side effects of medications. This is shown for the first time in a joint study by the Universities of Lucerne and Zurich, the University Hospital Zurich and Swissmedic.
During the eight-year study period, adverse drug reactions accounted for 2.3% of all hospital admissions, according to the study. Nearly half of those admitted for side effects (46.9%) were over the age of 65.
+ Why were women more affected by men from Covid-19 vaccine side effects?
The most common side effects noted were related to the digestive system (such as gastrointestinal inflammation), genitourinary system (for example, acute renal failure), or mental/behavioral state (such as opioid dependence).
Some 2.2% of those hospitalised due to side effects, or about 700 per year, died in hospital, the study further shows. Of these deaths, around 12% were reported to Swissmedic.
Despite the legal obligation to report, only about 5% of these hospitalisations were reported to the medicines authority Swissmedic, as the University of Lucerne announced on Thursday. Yet these reports are very important, study leader Patrick Beeler stressed in a statement.
Most previously unknown risks of medications are discovered in this way. According to the researcher, they thus form the most important cornerstone for drug safety. Beeler advocates that the duty to report be adequately addressed in the training of medical professionals.
In an international comparison, this reporting rate is still high, says Beeler. Internationally, the reporting rate is usually between 0.6 and 4.7%.
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.