Adverse drug reactions: reducing the burden of treatment.

This article offers definitions and descriptions of adverse drug reactions and the associated burden of treatment. Nurse-led patient monitoring may be one way to minimise the problems attributed to well-known adverse drug reactions. While clinical research is needed to explore feasible strategies to ameliorate the known adverse effects of treatments, academics need to develop detailed research databases to uncover the less well-established adverse effects, which may be of considerable public health importance.