Postmarketing surveillance and other epidemiologic uses of drug prescription data in the United States.

: Currently the data resources available for conducting pharmacoepidemiology studies in the United States include spontaneous case reports of adverse reactions, aggregate population-based data resources, computerized collections of data from organized medical care programs, data collected for pharmacoepidemiolgy on an ongoing basis, existing data collected as part of other ad hoc studies, and data collected de novo for pharmacoepidemiology studies. The advantages and disadvantages of each and the particular contributions of drug prescription data to each approach are described.