Absolute contraindications in relation to potential drug interactions in outpatient prescriptions: analysis of the first five million prescriptions in 1999

Abstract

Among a non-selected population of ambulatory outpatients, the number of quarterly prescriptions with contra-indications with potentially harmful drug interaction was 27 in 10,000 prescriptions. This would extrapolate to nearly 200,000 contra-indications on the same-prescription sheets in France in the first quarter of 1999.

Potential Drug-Drug Interactions in Prescriptions to Patients over 45 Years of Age in Primary Care, Southern Brazil

“…Pharmacists, in particular, should avoid dispensing combinations of drugs that may have serious DDIs [32]. In the present study, only 0.4% of the patients (3/827) had contraindicated DDIs, which is similar to figures reported in studies carried out in France (0.4%) [33] and Taiwan (0.2%) [18]. A previous population-based study conducted in Brazil using the same database found a frequency of 2.4% [20].…”

“…Similar studies report a trend of increasing prevalence of potential DDIs with the increase in the number of drugs prescribed [11], [29], [33]. Research worldwide has shown that polypharmacy (5 or more drugs) [39] contributes to the increased risk of potential DDIs [18], [19] In the present study, approximately two fifths of the patients were taking five or more drugs.…”

“…Research worldwide has shown that polypharmacy (5 or more drugs) [39] contributes to the increased risk of potential DDIs [18], [19] In the present study, approximately two fifths of the patients were taking five or more drugs. The increasing prevalence of potential interactions with age reflects the increase in the number of prescriptions [33]. The number of drugs prescribed and used by patients is a significant predictor of potential DDIs in pharmacoepidemiological studies.…”

Facteurs à prendre en considération pour la gestion des interactions médicamenteuses en pratique clinique

“…Ils ont constaté que 27 ordonnances sur 10 000 comportaient une contre-indication absolue. Par extrapolation, ces auteurs ont estimé que pour la France, annuellement ce serait prè s de 200 000 prescriptions qui comporteraient une contre-indication absolue [7]. Avec une dé marche similaire, Malone et al ont é tudié la fré quence de 25 interactions considé ré es comme cliniquement significatives au sein d'une base de donné es provenant d'une socié té d'assurance.…”

“…En France, les é tudes concernant les interactions mé dicamenteuses sont rares. Certaines ont concerné des patients traité s en ambulatoire [6,7], d'autres des ordonnances de ville qui ont é té analysé es par des mé decins ou des pharmaciens à la suite d'une hospitalisation des patients [1,[8][9][10]. La recherche et le signalement des interactions mé dicamenteuses constituent une part significative du travail du pharmacien lors de l'analyse et la validation des prescriptions.…”