Pharmacy Perspectives - Winter/Spring 2015 - (Page 10)

WINTER/SPRING "THE PAIN WAS EXCRUCIATING. IT WASN'T JUST THE PAIN, THOUGH. I WAS GOING OUT OF MY MIND." - DIANE VAN DEREN instead of sleepy. That is exactly what happened to Van Deren. Instead of relieving her pain and making her sleepy, the drugs made her agitated. "The pain was excruciating. It wasn't just the pain, though. I was going out of my mind. I felt I had to get out of there," says Van Deren. Biting, kicking, and screaming - she was out of control, and completely different from her normal self. Spitz says, "Problems like this happen, and with the help of pharmacists like Jacci, this helps to reduce the number of occurrences." Dr. Jacci Bainbridge and Diane Van Deren share a smile Some medications affect some people very differently than expected and unless you're a medications expert the medical team may not realize what's happening or know what to do. "You can make a bad situation worse," says Bainbridge. "Some patients like Diane are hypersensitive to medications and can become toxic on very low doses. She didn't always tolerate medications to control her seizures - that's one of the reasons why she was having surgery. We knew from her patient history that medications affected her differently." "In Diane's case the first medication they were eventeen years ago, Diane Van Deren underwent going to use to calm her would have had the opposite effect. It would brain surgery at University of Colorado Hospital have made her even more agitated and combative. Instead of using a first (UCH) to stop epileptic seizures racking her body. A line drug, they took my advice and used an alternative treatment, which golf-ball sized part of her brain was removed and the allowed her to relax and become composed," Bainbridge explains. seizures stopped. Though the surgery was a success, As part of the neurological team at UCH, Bainbridge helps manage Van Deren experienced an acute reaction to the patients and their medications - before, during and after brain medications she was given. surgery. She even enlists patients like Van Deren to help educate She became combative, tried to escape from the hospital and had to pharmacy students who, once they are trained and licensed as be physically restrained. Her reaction caught her physicians off guard. doctors of pharmacy, become crucial members of the health care That's why pharmacists like Jacci Bainbridge, PharmD and team. Infiltrating EDs and surgical suites, pharmacists provide a vast Professor at the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy knowledge of medications and possible interactions. Complications and Pharmaceutical Sciences, are part of UCH's neurological team. from drug interactions - even while being monitored in the hospital Medications experts like Dr. Bainbridge are relied upon to limit the - are one of the most common complications from which patients potential for adverse drug reactions and "paradoxical events" like the suffer. In fact, more than 800,000 people in the U.S experienced a one that affected Van Deren 17 years ago. Dr. Mark Spitz, head of UCH's serious adverse drug event in 2013, as reported by the FDA Adverse Adult Comprehensive Epilepsy Program and Van Deren's neurosurgeon Events Reporting System (FAERS). (Serious adverse drug events says, "Having a pharmacist on our team is incredibly important when are defined as events resulting in death, hospitalization, disability, transitioning patients from traumatic brain surgery to recovery." congenital anomaly and/or other serious outcomes). While uncommon, these paradoxical events do occur. Freed from her seizures, Van Deren who had always been an athBecause they are unusual, sometimes they are overlooked or misunlete began to really focus on running. "Prior to the surgery, running derstood. You've heard of children who take Benadryl and become hyper, helped control the seizures. Whenever I felt a seizure was about to RUNNING FOR HER LIFE S 10 CU Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

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