Background: Commitment to medical education can be assessed by the interest shown by students in attending classes. Medical education demands high attendance for good understanding and grasps over the subject. Aims and Objective: The aims and obejectives of the study were to study the effect of class attendance on performance in theory and practical examination. Materials and Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted at Department of Pharmacology, Government Medical College, Thrissur. The second professional MBBS students who have passed Pharmacology examination were included in the study. As per sample size calculation, 40 students were taken in each group, Group I having <80% attendance and Group II having more than 80% attendance in theory at the time of first internal examination. They were followed in second and final internal examination and their attendance and marks were compared. The attendance of practical classes and the performance in final internal practical examination of these students were also compared. Statistical analysis was performed using paired and independent sample t-test, Chi-square test, and Pearson correlation analysis. Results: The higher internal marks in theory and practical examination were seen in students with high attendance percentage (P < 0.05). There was significantly high pass percentage in all the three theory internal examination and final internal practical examination in students with high attendance. There was a positive correlation between attendance and marks in all the internal theory and practical examination. Conclusion: Performance in theory and practical examinations were significantly affected by attendance in theory and practical classes.

Objective: The objective of the study was to study the pattern of suspected adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in a tertiary care hospital. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study conducted in the Department of Pharmacology of a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital, Kerala. As part of pharmacovigilance activities, the ADRs were collected in Central Drug Standard Control Organization Suspected ADR reporting form from various departments during a period of 3 months and recorded in Pharmacovigilance register maintained by the pharmacology department. As part of our study, we collected the details such as patient’s initials, age, gender, reporting department of hospital, description of the ADR, duration of the reaction, name of suspected ADRs, and outcome from the Pharmacovigilance register. Descriptive statistics will be used for data analysis by statistical package for the social science for windows 16. Results: Two hundred and twenty-two ADR from 141 patients obtained during a period of 3 months. The maximum ADR reports were in age group more than 50 years of age. The skin and appendages were most affected followed by gastrointestinal tract. Antineoplastic drugs accounted for 59.7% of drug class suspected for ADRs followed by use of more than one drug (14.1%). Among antineoplastic drugs, cyclophosphamide and carboplatin accounted for majority causes of ADR. The antibiotics accounted for 12.7% of all drugs. Among the antibiotics penicillin and cephalosporins caused most of the ADRs. Conclusion: The maximum number of ADR reported in our study was with the use of antineoplastic drugs and most common ADR reported was alopecia.

BACKGROUNDTreatment of functional dyspepsia is often challenging due to involvement of multiple pathophysiological mechanisms and heterogeneous group of symptoms for the patients. Though several prokinetic drugs have been tried, none of them have established long-term efficacy and safety. Levosulpiride is a newer prokinetic drug with D2 blocking and 5HT4 agonistic action, which was compared with placebo for assessing its efficacy and safety.