Incidence and risk factors for potential drug-drug interactions in outpatients receiving opioid analgesics

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background Opioids are the most frequently used drugs to treat pain in cancer patients. However opioid analgesics can cause adverse effects and potential drug-drug interaction. Research design and methods This cross-sectional retrospective study analyzed pDDI in 1839 patients with opioid analgesics in a large comprehensive hospital in China from January 1 to 31 December 2022. Three drug interaction databases were used to screen for pDDI including Drugs (U.S.A.), Medscape (U.S.A.), and Drug Assistant of Dingxiangyuan (China). Results The prevalence of pDDIs among 1839 patients was around 41.27% of 759 patients, and 564 patients (74.31%) with pDDIs were diagnosed with tumor. Further, the total of 275 various pDDIs combinations were identified. The combination of oxycodone with morphine had the most frequent occurrence of 229 times, and its adverse effects mainly related to exacerbate central respiratory depression. While, gender, tumor, number of diagnoses, and the variety of opioid analgesics used were independent risk factors for pDDIs. Conclusions Outpatients taking opioid analgesics had a higher incidence of pDDIs. As consequently, optimized monitoring and management of patients taking opioid analgesics is recommended in order to ensure patient medication safety.