A brief survey on awareness of pharmacovigilance among ayurveda physicians in Sri Lanka

Pharmacovigilance is the study of the safety of drugs under the practical conditions of clinical usage in large communities. Aim of this study was to assess the pharmacovigilance awareness among a focus group of Ayurveda physicians in Sri Lanka who participated for their postgraduate studies. A questionnaire which was suitable for assessing the basic knowledge, attitude and the practice of pharmacovigilance was designed and submitted among group of Ayurveda physicians (n = 30) who participated for postgraduate studies in Institute of Indigenous Medicine, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Among participants30% of the subjects knew the term pharmacovigilance, 20% were aware of the unavailability of the National Pharmacovigilance Program for Ayurveda and Traditional Medicine in Sri Lanka, 70% believe about Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) may be occurred from Ayurveda medicine, 60% indicated that Most labeled counterfeit drugs, inappropriate use and standardization problems as the most important causes of ADRs associated with Ayurvedicdrugs, 70% physicians accepted their ignorance about pharmacovigilance and admitted that there was a need for better training of this subject and 90% admitted that there should be a national pharmacovigilance programme for Ayurveda medicines in Sri Lanka. We strongly suggest that there is an urgent need for a regular training and the introduce ADRs reporting system among the Ayurveda physicians. Also systematic pharmacovigilance programme is essential to build up for reliable information on the safety and effective practice of Ayurveda medicine in Sri Lanka.