Novel adverse events of vortioxetine: A disproportionality analysis in USFDA adverse event reporting system database

Signal detection is one of the most advanced and emerging field in pharmacovigilance. It is a modern method of detecting new reaction (which can be desired or undesired) of a drug. It facilitates early adverse drug reaction detection which enables health professionals to identify adverse events that may not have been identified in pre-marketing clinical trials. Vortioxetine, the first mixed serotonergic antidepressant was initially approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) on September 30, 2013 for the treatment of adults with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). This study was to identify the signal strength for vortioxetine associated ADRs using data mining technique in USFDA Adverse Event Reporting System (AERS) database.

Most commonly used three data mining algorithms, Reporting Odds Ratio (ROR), Proportional Reporting Ratio (PRR) and Information Component (IC) were selected for the study and they were applied retrospectively in USFDA AERS database from 2015Q1 to 2016Q3. A value of ROR-1.96SE >1, PRR≥2, IC- 2SD>0 were considered as the positive signal.

A study population of 61,22,000 were reported all over the world. Among which 3481 reactions were associated with vortioxetine which comprised of 632 unique events encompassed with 27 clinically relevant reactions. ROR, PRR and IC showed positive signal for weight loss, agitation, anger, ketoacidosis, insomnia and abnormal dreams.

The present study suggests that vortioxetine may result in these adverse events. Further pharmacoepidemiologic studies are necessary to confirm this conclusion and to improve the precision of the prevalence and/or the risk factors of this ADRs.