Polypharmacy as risk factor of interdrug interactions and possible cause of pharmacotherapy complications in multidisciplinary pediatric hospital

Abstract

Drug interactions are a critical problem in clinical pharmacology and daily clinical practice. Physicians often face the need to prescribe a combination of two or more drugs (polypharmacy), especially when treating patients with several comorbidities. In some combinations, drugs, being chemically active substances, can enter into multi-drug interactions often with clinically significant adverse effects and/or reduction of therapy effectiveness, increasing the cost of treatment. Potential multi-drug interaction refers to the possibility of changing the pharmacological effect of one or more drugs when they are prescribed simultaneously or sequentially. Depending on the final result, the interaction may be synergistic (with increasing effect) or antagonistic (weakening or blockage of the effect).