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Section 6 - Adverse Drug Reactions
Introduction
This section evaluates your ability to recognise adverse effects caused by various medications, as well as how to prevent and manage them. You will also need to identify significant drug-drug interactions. Understanding common and critical adverse drug reactions is essential for proper monitoring (See Section 7 - Drug Monitoring) and for making informed decisions about whether to continue or discontinue medications (See Section 8 - Data Interpretation). Many of the key concepts covered here will be revisited in Sections 7 and 8, as they are crucial not only for the Prescribing Safety Assessment but also for the clinical practice.
| Question Style | MCQ - select 1 option from list of 5 |
|---|---|
| Total Questions | 8 |
| Marks per Question | 2 (Total of 16 marks) |
| Advised Time per Question | 1 min 30 seconds |
Content Overview
There are four types of questions that come up in this section:
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Type 1 - What is the most likely adverse effect caused by [Drug X]?
A patient will be taking a particular drug, and you will be asked to identify the most likely adverse effect, out of a list of 5, caused by this particular drug. Typically you will be asked about commonly used medications or important side-effects that you should be aware of for particular drugs.
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Type 2 - What drug is most likely responsible for causing [Specific Adverse Effect]?
These questions ask you to pick the most likely drug, out of a list of five, that has caused a particular adverse drug reaction in a patient. Examples include renal impairment, hyponatraemia, hypoglycaemia, etc.
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Type 3 - Which one of the following drugs is most likely interacting with [Drug X]?
A patient that takes a long list of medications, has come to hospital with a particular presentation. You will be required to identify which drugs from the drug history are interacting, and the drug most likely responsible for causing this presentation.
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Type 4 - What is the most appropriate management for [Specific Adverse reaction]?
A patient will present to hospital with an adverse drug reaction. You will be expected to know how to manage this patient’s presentation. Questions will revolve around clinically important adverse reactions such as anaphylaxis, excessive anticoagulation, drug overdose, etc.
We will cover each of these question types in detail. Let’s get started!