The potential for drug interactions

✍ Scribed by Stephen Karas Jr

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1981
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 295 KB
• Volume: 10
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1097-6760
• DOI: 10.1016/s0196-0644(81)80085-6

✦ Synopsis

To study the problem of drug interactions in an emergency department, a microcomputer was programmed to identify the potentially adverse enhancements and antagonistic interactions of drugs in a randomly chosen group of 355 patients who were currently taking or were administered two or more medications. Interactions were present in 57 patients (16%), with an incidence ranging from 5.6% for those taking two drugs to 100% for those taking seven drugs. From the total of 76 potential drug interactions identified, 69 involved one of only 10 drugs, and 15 interactions (20%) appeared to be of potential clinical significance. To supplement the computer program and educational sessions, a common drug interaction table was developed, accounting for 90% of the potential drug interactions seen in our emergency department.