Welcome to the ADRIC Research Programme

ADRIC - Adverse Drug Reactions in Children

It is a vital research programme which has been awarded 5 years funding by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) working in collaboration with the University of Liverpool (UoL) and Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust.  Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are the unwanted effects of medication. The aim of this research programme is to identify and avoid adverse drug reactions in children.  Research of this subject has not previously been carried out on this scale and it is addressing a gap in paediatric medicine which is long overdue.  The programme comprises a series of studies carried out in partnership with a multi disciplinary team of professionals from both Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Liverpool.  The Chief Investigator is Professor Rosalind Smyth, Director of Clinical Research and Director of MCRN (Medicines for Children Research Network).  

In all, five studies will be carried out, some of which will be taking place simultaneously:

ADRIC 1:  The investigation of adverse drug reactions among acute admissions of children to Alder Hey Hospital has been completed. The analysis has been carried out and the pilot study results have been published in Journal of Clinical Pharmacy & Therapeutics (Click here to go to the publication) the full study paper has been accepted to PLoS ONE.    

ADRIC 2: The year long Investigation of adverse drug reactions that occur amongst in-patients commenced in October 2009 and is now complete. The analysis has been carried out and publications of the study are now pending.

ADRIC 3: The systematic review, combined evidence from the studies which have investigated adverse drug reactions in children and described methods used for identifying these ADRs. The systematic review paper has been published in PLoS ONE (Click here to go to the publication).

ADRIC-QUAL: This study explores families' and clinicians' experiences of paediatric adverse drug reactions and aims to help improve communication between families and clinicians when a suspected ADR has occurred. The findings of parents' ADR experiences have been published in PLoS ONE (Click here to go to the publication) and the results of parents participation in the yellow card scheme has been published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology (Click here to go to the publication). Further publications of additional study findings are pending.

ADRIC 5: This study uses the findings from the first four studies to produce tools that will help to both identify and communicate ADRs. The Liverpool Causality Assessment Tool (LCAT) was developed and the paper was published in PLoS ONE (Click here to go to the publication). Child and parent information leaflets are currently being developed. The LCAT e-learning package is under development before being validated.

The impact of this programme will be invaluable as awareness of adverse drug reactions will be raised, leading to the production of national guidelines for prevention. This understanding will ultimately result in much improved safety in prescribing medicines for children and young people.

The ADRIC team would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has supported them so far throughout all the studies and look forward to your continued co-operation. If you would like any further information regarding the ADRIC programme please contact Rebekah Hughes, ADRIC Administrator on 0151 282 4751 or Rebekah.Hughes@liv.ac.uk.