APRIL charity was founded and established in 1998 to reduce the misdiagnosis and repeated occurrence of adverse psychiatric side-effects to prescribed medicines and folowing surgery.
Our conferences were groundbreaking as they were self funded and allowed doctors and patients to discuss openly and freely the harm from prescribed medicines and how medical education was failing to address patient safety in many ways. In particular the lack of Clinical Pharmacology and understanding of how drugs work in different people. Please hear the talks here on video - as relevant today as when they were spoken.
Please refer to information below, to the list on the left and to the headings above. We hope you will find information that is of help to you
Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are estimated to cause 6.5% of hospital admissions in the UK, responsible for over £2 billion of the NHS budget each year
Click here for : Over 30 videos with talks by doctors, professors and academics, from our conferences. They are as relevant today as when they were recorded.
A video on the Home Page, has the personal story of Karen, Millie Kieve's daughter and how her experiences of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and sudden death led to the foundation of APRIL
We promote efforts to improve medical education and awareness of the public in an effort to improve patient safety.
Psychiatric adverse drug reactions are undesirable outcomes from medication that affect a person's mental health. These symptoms can result during the course of taking the medication, from missing a dose or from withdrawal effects.
Side-effects can include insomnia, nightmares, night terrors, hallucinations, anxiety, memory impairments, panic attacks, mood swings, low self-esteem, depression, self-harm and suicidal behaviour.
Awareness
We wish for patients and doctors to be more aware of potential psychiatric ADRs for earlier recognition of these symptoms. This may prevent polypharmcy leading to further mental health deterioration and reduce dangerous and tragic outcomes.
Unfortunately psychiatric ADRs are under-reported in the UK due to poor awareness and recognition of the symptoms by both the patients, their families and the doctors who prescribe or have to deal with the outcomes..
Research
We campaign for safe prescribing and greater consideration of ADR risks, by disseminating information and guidance to patients, healthcare professionals and organisations.
APRIL gathers evidence from patients, medical research and health professionals to understand which drugs are affecting mood and behaviour.