scholarly journals Frequency of potential interactions between drugs in medical prescriptions in a city in southern Brazil

2009 ◽  
Vol 127 (4) ◽  
pp. 206-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Genici Weyh Bleich ◽  
Ariana Bleich ◽  
Priscila Chiamulera ◽  
Andréia Cristina Conegero Sanches ◽  
Deborah Sandra Leal Guimarães Schneider ◽  
...  

CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: Drug interactions form part of current clinical practice and they affect between 3 and 5% of polypharmacy patients. The aim of this study was to identify the frequency of potential drug-drug interactions in prescriptions for adult and elderly patients. TYPE OF STUDY AND SETTING: Cross-sectional pharmacoepidemiological survey in the Parque Verde housing project, municipality of Cascavel, Paraná, Brazil, between December 2006 and February 2007. METHODS: Stratified cluster sampling, proportional to the total number of homes in the housing project, was used. The sample consisted of 95 homes and 96 male or female patients aged 19 or over, with medical prescriptions for at least two pharmaceutical drugs. Interactions were identified using DrugDigest, Medscape and Micromedex softwares. RESULTS: Most of the patients were female (69.8%), married (59.4%) and in the age group of 60 years or over (56.3%), with an income less than or equal to three minimum monthly salaries (81.3%) and less than eight years of schooling (69.8%); 90.6% of the patients were living with another person. The total number of pharmaceutical drugs was 406 (average of 4.2 medications per patient). The drugs most prescribed were antihypertensives (47.5%). The frequency of drug interactions was 66.6%. Among the 154 potential drug interactions, 4.6% were classified as major, 65.6% as moderate and 20.1% as minor. CONCLUSION: The high frequency of drug prescriptions with a potential for differentiated interactions indicates a situation that has so far been little explored, albeit a reality in household surveys.

Author(s):  
Erna Yanti ◽  
Erna - Kristin ◽  
Alfi Yasmina

Objective: Patients with hypertension often suffer from other comorbidities, resulting in prescriptions of multiple drugs to treat the conditions. Multiple drug treatment is potentially associated with drug interactions. This aim of the study was to assess potential drug interactions in hypertensive patients in Liwa District Hospital.Methods: The design of the study was cross-sectional. The prescriptions for in-patients with essential hypertension in the Internal Medicine Unit in Liwa District Hospital during April-December 2012 were collected. Potential drug interactions were analyzed with the Drug Interaction Facts version 4.0, and classified into minor, significant, and serious.Results: A total of 60 hypertensive patients were included. They were prescribed 265 prescriptions, with a median total of 6 (range 1-21) drugs prescribed per prescription. There were 1616 potential drug interactions, with 6 (1-31) potential interactions per prescription. Most interactions (75.6%) were classified as significant. Serious potential interactions were most common in the combinations of diltiazem-amlodipine and spironolactone-potassium chloride, while significant potential interaction may occur most often with the combinations of calcium chloride-amlodipine and bisoprolol-amlodipine.Conclusion: Numerous potential drug interactions might occur in hypertensive patients, and most interactions were significant in severity. The largest proportion of the interactions occurred between antihypertensive agents and other drugs. 


2014 ◽  
Vol 83 (3) ◽  
pp. 238-243
Author(s):  
Karolina Kilińska ◽  
Magdalena Cerbin-Koczorowska ◽  
Arleta Matschay ◽  
Michał Mierzwicki ◽  
Karolina Chmaj-Wierzchowska

Aim. The aim of the pilot study was to assess the effectiveness of the tool designed for detecting potential drug-drug interactions of combined oral contraceptives (COCs) with particular emphasis on those which can affect their contraceptive action. A proper study protocol design seems to be essential for further analysis of more data and for establishing correlations between observed interactions and demographic variables.Material and methods. The cross-sectional descriptive, retrospective study was carried out on Polish females from March to May 2013. Gathered data, including products used concomitantly with contraceptive drugs, were derived electronically by patients and underwent thematic analysis.Results. Out of 49 respondents who agreed to participate in the study and fit the inclusion criteria only 15 derived qualitative data about other medicinal products they used. However, some of them sent their monthly report more than once, which gave the total of 158 drugs listed in 25 forms gathered during the whole pilot study. Fifty-three potential drug interactions were found, including 13 (24.53%) which could have decreased the effectiveness of contraceptive drugs.Conclusions. Continuation of the study in accordance with the study protocol will result in identification of common potential drug-related problems, which may enable development of an educational solution for gynecologists, pharmacists and patients increasing their awareness of the potential risk of contraceptive failures and unintended pregnancies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Yuan ◽  
Chunying Shen ◽  
Chengnan Wang ◽  
Gang Shen ◽  
Bing Han

Background: Drug interactions are the most common preventable cause of adverse drug reaction, which may result in drug toxicity or undesired therapeutic effect with harmful outcomes to patients. Given the rising use of combination therapies, the main objectives of this study were to estimate the degree to which physicians can identify potential drug-drug interactions (PDDIs) correctly and to describe the common source of information used by physicians when they need to check PDDIs.Methods: A cross-sectional survey utilizing a self-administered online questionnaire was conducted among physicians in China. Participants were asked to classify 20 drug pairs as “no interaction,” “may be used together with monitoring,” “contraindication,” and “not sure.” We also collected data on the physician's source of information and altitude toward the PDDIs. An ordinary least square regression model was performed to investigate the potential predictors of PDDI knowledge.Results: Eligible questionnaires were obtained from 618 physicians. The respondents classified correctly 6.7 out of 20 drug pairs, or 33.4% of the drug interactions investigated. The number of drug pairs recognized by respondents was ranged from 0 to 16. The percentage of physicians who recognized specific drug pairs ranged from 8.3% for no interactions between conjugated estrogens and raloxifene, to 64.0% for the interaction between dopamine and phenytoin. When the respondents want to check PDDI information, the most commonly used source of information was package inserts (n = 572, 92.6%), followed by the Internet or mobile Apps (n = 424, 68.6%), consultation with clinical pharmacists (n = 384, 62.1%), medical textbooks (n = 374, 60.5%), knowledge base in Chinese (n = 283, 45.8%), and other physicians (n = 366, 59.2%). In the multiple regression analysis, the significant predictors of a higher number of recognized drug pairs were years of practice and altitudes toward PDDIs.Conclusion: In this online survey accessing physician's ability to detect PDDIs, less than half of the drug pairs were recognized, indicating unsatisfactory level of knowledge about the clinically significant drug interactions. Continuing education and accessible electronic database can help physicians detecting PDDIs and improve drug safety.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 1209-1218
Author(s):  
Mouza S.R Al Zaabi ◽  
Sathvik Belagodu Sridhar ◽  
Talaat Matar Tadross ◽  
Atiqulla Shariff

Antidepressant medications are prescribed to treat depression and related psychiatric illnesses. In patients with depression, many categories of drugs are prescribed to treat clinical conditions and comorbidities. Hence, it is essential to screen such patients for potential drug interactions. The study aimed to assess the frequency of potential drug interactions (pDDIs) associated with antidepressant medications administered to the outpatients of the psychiatry department. This cross-sectional investigation was conducted in a psychiatry outpatient setting. Patients satisfying inclusion criteria were screened for pDDIs by reviewing the patients’ electronic case records. All the identified pDDIs were further evaluated using Micromedex database 2.0.A total of 131 eligible patients’ case records were reviewed. The frequency of pDDIs between antidepressants and other psychotropic medications, antidepressants and non-psychotropic medications, antidepressants,tobacco, antidepressants, and ethanol was 48.1%,9.2%, 7.6%, and 3.8%, respectively. Use of more than three medications [RR: 1.5; CI: 1.1-2.1], presence of total [RR: 7.9; CI: 1.1-52.5] as well as psychiatric polypharmacy [RR: 4.8; CI: 1.3-17.9] were identified as predisposing factors of pDDIs.The results of the multiple regression indicated that the model was a significant predictor of pDDIs (F[3, 127]= 6.368, p<0.01, R2 = 0.13). In comparison,psychiatric polypharmacy was the only variable contributing significantly to the model (B = -0.423, p<.05). Nearly fifty percent of patients taking antidepressant medications were found to have the potential for developing drug interactions. Review of treatment charts for psychotropic, non-psychotropic, and non-prescription medications, along with different medical conditions that patients suffer from and the social habits of patients,is essential to identify and resolve potential drug interactions in at-risk patients.


2021 ◽  
pp. 28-29
Author(s):  
Jayesh Dhananjay Gosavi ◽  
Deppa H Velankar ◽  
Sumedha M Joshi ◽  
Sumit G Wasnik ◽  
Sudarshan Ramaswamy

Background:It is estimated that annually more than 89 lakh children in the country do not receive all vaccines that are available under the UIP– the highest number compared with any other country in the world. Objective: This study was carried out to assess vaccination coverage of children of age group 12 - 23 month residing in the eld practice area of tertiary hospital. Material & methods: This was sectional study conducted at eld practice area of tertiary care hospital during January 2017 to July 2018. Study population was children in the age group 12-23 month. As per WHO norm for identication of sample size for vaccination coverage in study area 30 cluster sampling method is preferred. Results: In the study 188 (89.52%) children were Fully Immunized. 22 (10.48%) children were partially immunized and none of the child was non immunized. overall coverage of BCG was 98.5, for PENTA3 was 96.3%, OPV3 was 96.3% and Measles was 89.8%. Conclusion: Overall immunization coverage in the area is good and higher than the national coverage level. There is no signicant difference in the immunization status of Male and Female children.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (7) ◽  
pp. e0220248
Author(s):  
Fernanda Raphael Escobar Gimenes ◽  
Melissa Baysari ◽  
Scott Walter ◽  
Leticia Alves Moreira ◽  
Rhanna Emanuela Fontenele Lima de Carvalho ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Hossein Ali Mehralian ◽  
Jafar Moghaddasi ◽  
Hossein Rafiei

Abstract Background The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the prevalence of potentially beneficial and harmful drug-drug interactions (DDIs) in intensive care units (ICUs). Methods The present cross-sectional prospective study was conducted in two ICUs in Shahr-e Kord city, Iran. The study sample was consisted of 300 patients. The Drug Interaction Facts reference text book [Tatro DS. Drug interaction facts. St Louis, MO: Walters Kluwer Health, 2010.] was used to determine the type and the frequency of the DDIs. Results The participants consisted of 189 patients men and 111 women. The mean age of patients was 44.2 ± 24.6 years. Totally, 60.5% of patients had at least one drug-drug interaction in their profile. The total number of DDIs found was 663 (the mean of the total number of drug-drug interactions was 2.4 interactions per patient). Of all the 663 interactions, 574 were harmful and others were beneficial. In terms of starting time, 98 of the potential interactions were rapid and 565 of them were delayed. In terms of severity, 511 of the potential interactions were moderate. Some of the drugs in the patients’ medical records including phenytoin, dopamine, ranitidine, corticosteroid, dopamine, heparin, midazolam, aspirin, magnesium, calcium gluconate, and antibiotics, the type of ventilation, the type of nutrition and the duration of hospital stay were among the factors that were associated with high risk of potential DDIs (p < 0.05). Conclusions The prevalence of potentially beneficial and harmful DDIs, especially harmful drug-drug interactions, is high in ICUs and it is necessary to reduce these interactions by implementing appropriate programs and interventions.


Author(s):  
Anuradha Kizhatil ◽  
Reshma . ◽  
Harsha Chollankil Hariharan ◽  
Alexander John ◽  
Ann Mary Thomas ◽  
...  

Background: Immunization is one of the most cost-effective interventions averting countless childhood deaths and protecting millions of children from disability and illness. The objective of the current study was to assess the immunization coverage and associated factors among children aged 12-23 months and 5-7 years in Paravur Taluk of Ernakulam district, Kerala.Methods: A community based cross sectional study was done. Cluster sampling method of WHO was used for evaluation of immunization coverage.300 children in the age group of 12–23 months and 300 children in the age group 5-7 years were selected from each of the 30 clusters. Crude coverage details for each vaccine were estimated using percentages. Bivariate analysis was conducted to identify independent predictors of immunization coverage.Results: Among the children 12-23 months old, eleven (3.7%) children were partially immunized, while everybody had received at least one vaccine. The proportion of children fully immunized was 96.3%. Among the children 5-7 years old 55 (18.3%) were partially immunized. Belonging to Muslim religion, fathers’ occupation i.e. who were labourers/unskilled workers, mother’s education less than 12th standard and not possessing the mother and child protection card were found to be factors associated with partial immunization.Conclusions: This study shows that full immunization has not reached all children.


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