Abstract
Background The safety and proper utilization of a drug depends not only on its pharmacological action, but also its interactions with other drugs and their metabolites. Therefore, a multifaceted biochemical system must be considered when prescribing any drug.
Objective The purpose of the present study is to identify potential drug-drug interactions (pDDIs) and investigate their level of severity, onset of action, mechanism of action, and incidence in the medical wards of Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Teaching Hospital, Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Methods A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted from November 2016 to January 2017 in the medical wards of a teaching hospital. A systematic random sampling technique was used to select patients from the available settings with one in every seven patients selected to provide a sample of 384 patients.
Results A total of 388 pDDIs were identified, which comprised 86 types of drug combinations. Across all pDDIs, most were of major severity (39.9%), followed by moderate (39.6%) and minor (19.5%) severity and contraindicated (0.7%). A majority of the study participants were male (292; 76%) and the mean age of the patients was 50 years. Overall, 51.0% patients had at least one pDDI.
Conclusion The overall prevalence of pDDIs is very high in medical wards, and the incidence of pDDIs is primarily associated with polypharmacy and patient age.