Prescription problems: clinical pharmacology and lawsuits

Prescription errors are the second most frequent malpractice claim filed against physicians in the United States. Drug claims are also the second most expensive dispute that all physicians confront, and primary care physicians account for most of those claims. Family practitioners, internists, and other primary care physicians are the physicians who will benefit most from acquiring further knowledge of clinical pharmacology. Such knowledge will lead to a consistent approach to qualitative and quantitative decision making in the therapeutics of patient management. Knowledge of clinical pharmacology should allow practitioners to distinguish drug-related events from unpredictable changes in the course of the disease and should provide a diversified knowledge about objective therapeutics that will allow these clinicians to individualize therapy.