Owing to the nature of their work, anaesthetists are involved in adverse drug reactions more commonly than most other clinicians. These adverse reactions to drugs can be classified as predictable or unpredictable. Predictable reactions are usually dose dependent, reproducible, and are often accepted as expected side-effects of the drug (e.g. hypotension after injection of thiopental). Unpredictable drug reactions may be classified as anaphylactoid or anaphylactic, and are dose independent.
