Adverse reactions: Learning exercises

Last updated: Sunday, November 10, 2024


There is a quiz to help reinforce your learning about adverse reactions here. You can look things up if you need to.



Real clinical problems

Look at these real clinical problems and decide what further questions you’d ask and where you would look for information.
When you’re ready, here are our suggested answers. Do you agree? If you want to, you could talk to your tutor or a colleague about them or record them as a CPD exercise.

Additional learning


NHS Education for Scotland and the Yellow Card Centre of Scotland have jointly produced a range of interactive e-learning modules on adverse drug reactions. If you are pushed for time then you might like to prioritise modules: 1, 4, and 5.



1. Basic principles - definition, impact on patients and healthcare, frequency, patient factors affecting risk.
2. Categorisation - includes the difference between dose related, predictable reactions and those that are not.
3. Drug allergy classification - the types of allergy, its identification, and the risk factors for developing it.
4. Diagnosis, interpretation, and management - differentiating a drug cause from a non-drug cause, and basic options for management.
5. Avoiding adverse drug reactions - risk factors predisposing to adverse reactions, and methods of monitoring.
6. Pharmacovigilance - how medicines are monitored after their initial launch. 

Do an enquiry in a Medicines Information (MI) centre


Finally, if you have access to the MiCAL training package (subscription required) you may like to undertake question numbers 2 or 7 in its database of example MI enquiries, both of which involve patients with adverse drug reactions.