Tramadol: repeated prescriptions and repeated warnings

This article is part of the Coroners’ Concerns to Prevent Harms series.1 It covers the two deaths from tramadol associated with repeat prescribing from two reports to prevent of future deaths.2 3 Rational therapeutics—that is, the safe, effective, and cost-effective use of medicines—requires that the reasons for prescribing a medicine should be reassessed from time to time. Where prescribing in automated systems is deemed ‘routine’ or ‘repeat’ prescribing, it may continue long after the patient benefits from treatment. This exposes the patient to the risk of inadvertent or deliberate overdose. Over time,...
Source: Evidence-Based Medicine - Category: Internal Medicine Authors: Tags: General medicine Source Type: research