Social Media and Adverse Events Analysis: Potential Approach for Drug Safety

Introduction: For the monitoring of adverse events related to medicinal products, social mediacan be used as potential source of information underpharmacovigilance domain. It also provides the insight about the consumer/patient perceptions on adverse events experienced. The objective of this research is to find out,if  data available on social media can help in the determination and assessment of new adverse events, signals, already known risks and signals, consumers or patients opinion on the side effects and any product quality related issues faced. It alsoincludes,number of ‘posts/messages found with similarity to adverse drug reaction/adverse events along with theproductclassification. Method:For the purpose of thisresearch work, data has been collected from various digital social media platforms which includeTwitter, Facebook, YouTube, Reddit etc. A supplementary work alsoinvolved literature search using internet search engine, field expert opinion, newsletters, and various blogs available on internet etc. Results:5075 records were found in the internet searches and databaseexplored.AEs measured from Twitter were around 3% and whereas Facebook measured 4% of AEs. These outcomes were further supportedby the suggestions from peer reviewers, field experts, reference review and studies published by various authors.Narratives analysis posted was used and then AEs posted on the selected social digital media platforms were calculated. Conclusion:Monitoring of the digital social media forums/ platforms can help in identifying adverse events related to the medicinal product of interest. The validation and reliability ofdata needs to be assessed in detail. Heterogeneityhas also been found in thefrequency and the type of adverse events reported.