Need of Pharmacovigilance in Ayurveda: A Review

Abstract

Pharmacovigilance is defined as the activities relating to detection, evaluation, understanding and prevention of adverse drug reactions or other drug related problems. WHO established its programme for International Drug monitoring in response to thalidomide disaster detection in 1961. In India, even though The National Pharmacovigilance Programme has organised a separate area for ASU drugs, lack of knowledge about the concept and importance of pharmacovigilance among ayurvedic practitioners leads to the improper analysis and report of adverse effects. In case of ayurvedic drugs there is a popular misconception that they are devoid of adverse reactions. But in reality, side effects are not completely absent but they are comparatively less. In addition to this, with the increase in demand of herbal drugs, Ayurvedic drug manufacturing companies are sprouting in every nook and corner leading to the compromise in the quality of the medicines. This can have a profound impact on the safety and efficacy of ASU drugs in the market. Further application of causality assessment scales for ayurvedic medicines is perhaps the greatest challenge due to several reasons. This paper aims to assess the need of pharmacovigilance in Ayurveda.