Abstract
Objective: The objective of the study is to determine the occurrence, frequency, and severity of significant drug-drug interactions in stroke patients, with an emphasis on post complications and their symptomatic management. Methods: A prospective observational study was carried out for 6 mo at Osmania General Hospital, a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital. The prescriptions taken by stroke patients throughout their hospital stay were analyzed for possible interactions using-Micromedex-2 (Thomson Reuters) × 2.0. Results: A total of 130 prescriptions was analyzed in the study in which 141 drug-drug interactions were found with a male predominance of 85.4%. The majority of interactions were of moderate severity (74.46%) and pharmacokinetics (67.37%) in nature. Among the clinical consequences, decreased atorvastatin efficacy (49.10%) was found to be the highest. The class of drugs most commonly involved in drug-drug interactions was found to be anti-epileptics and statins. 60.15% of the study population were identified with one complication, among which seizures account for 15% of patients. All the complications allied with the condition were treated with drug classes in the study population. Conclusion: This study highlighted the exigency for screening prescriptions of cerebrovascular accident patients for potential drug-drug interactions (pDDIs). Brain edema and seizure were the most accountable complications identified in the study population. The early detection of these problems can improve stroke outcomes and can reduce the mortality or disability rate.
Highlights
Innocuous use of modern and conventional medicines is a striving objective for all of us
All the patient prescriptions were analyzed during the study period and it was found that 53 (37.6%) patients were confirmed with a minimum of one DDI
The present study revealed the overall incidence of potential drug-drug interactions (pDDIs) among 130 stroke patients at Osmania General Hospital
Summary
Innocuous use of modern and conventional medicines is a striving objective for all of us. While some medicines can gravely injure or even kill, most of them have beneficial effects for the people even while they may cause intermittent minor harm such as headache, rash, or tiredness [1]. Drug therapy is an essential part of disease management. The use of multiple drugs which are required either to manage a single disease or co-morbidities can cause harmful interactions between them [2]. Drug-related problems such as adverse drug reactions, drug-drug interactions, idiosyncratic reactions, and hypersensitivity were major challenges in clinical practice [3]. Potential DDIs are observed to be one of the most frequently appearing challenges that may amend the drug pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, altering the overall therapeutic response [4]
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