Prevalence of potenial drug-drug interactions among psychitric patients in Ayder referral hospital, Mekelle, Tigray, Ethiopia

Abstract

Introduction: A clinically relevant drug-drug occurs when the effectiveness or toxicity of one medication is altered by the administration of another medicine. Potential Drug-drug interactions are an important cause of adverse drug reactions. Psychiatric patients are increasingly susceptible to drug interactions due to the polypharmacy, nature of the prescribed drugs and most of the drugs prescribed are either enzyme inhibitor or inducers. Objective: To determine the prevalence of the potential drug-drug interactions. Methodology: A retrospective cross sectional study was performed from to March to June, 2013. Medications on patients’ medical charts were reviewed and analyzed for potential drug-drug interactions based on Micromedex Online Drug Reference. Results: In our study, total of 463 potential drug-drug interactions were identified, with median number of one potential drug-drug interaction per patient. Overall 81.65 % of the patients had at least one potential drug-drug interaction; 49.5 % patients had at least one major; and 52.3 % had at least one moderate potential drug-drug interactions. The most frequent potential drug-drug interactions identified were Haloperidol-Trihexphenidyl 74 times and Chlorpromazine–Haloperidol 36 times. Conclusion: A high prevalence of potential drug-drug interaction is recorded in our study area. Most potential drug-drug interactions recorded in this stud may cause cardio toxicity and QT prolongation. Patients with the risk of cardiovascular comorbidities and those who are prescribed multiple medications need to be monitored more closely.

Potential drug-drug interactions and associated factors among admitted patients with psychiatric disorders at selected hospitals in Northwest Ethiopia

“…Therefore, patients taking a combination of potentially interactive medications need close follow-up. In contrast, the current finding is lower than studies demonstrated in Mekelle, Ethiopia [ 8 ]. The discrepancy in the prevalence of pDDIs among different studies might be related to differences in healthcare approach with pharmacist involvement, differences in alternative medication availability, and differences in the use of software or tools to identify pDDIs in these patients taking interactive medications.…”

“…The single population proportion formula was used to calculate the required sample size by considering the following assumptions: the proportion of drug–drug interactions to be 81.8% ( P = 0.82) [ 8 ], the reliability coefficient for 95% confidence level (Z = 1.96) and 5% margin of error (d = 0.05); n = z 2 pq/d 2 .…”

“…The most serious interactions with psychotropics result in profound sedation, central nervous system toxicity, large changes in blood pressure, ventricular arrhythmias, and an increased risk of dangerous side-effects or a decreased therapeutic effect of one of the interacting drugs [ 7 , 8 ]. It is difficult to completely prevent drug-drug interactions, especially in patients with psychiatric problems, due to the lifelong treatment use of multidrug regimens and the fact that most patients are elderly.…”

“…However, in Ethiopia, the investigations regarding the prevalence and nature of pDDIs in admitted patients with psychiatric disorders are limited. Even though there is a single study that demonstrated drug-drug interactions in patients with psychiatric disorders, it was a single-center study with a retrospective cross-sectional design [8]. The current multicenter study was part of a project initially published regarding the prevalence of drug-related problems (DRPs) [9].…”

Drug-related problems and associated factors among adult psychiatric inpatients in Northwest Ethiopia: Multicenter cross-sectional study

“… 8 Psychiatric patients are becoming more vulnerable to drug-to-drug interactions (DDI). 9 Since DRPs are a vital issue and a significant number of them are preventable, the specific hazard factors that encourage the event of DRPs are of extensive interest. However, there is no data which has published about the prevalence of and extents of DRPs in the Northwest Ethiopia.…”