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      Frequency of potential interactions between drugs in medical prescriptions in a city in southern Brazil Translated title: Frequência de potenciais interações entre drogas nas prescrições médicas em uma cidade do Sul do Brasil

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          Abstract

          CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: Drug interactions form part of current clinical practice and they affect between 3 and 5% of polypharmacy patients. The aim of this study was to identify the frequency of potential drug-drug interactions in prescriptions for adult and elderly patients. TYPE OF STUDY AND SETTING: Cross-sectional pharmacoepidemiological survey in the Parque Verde housing project, municipality of Cascavel, Paraná, Brazil, between December 2006 and February 2007. METHODS: Stratified cluster sampling, proportional to the total number of homes in the housing project, was used. The sample consisted of 95 homes and 96 male or female patients aged 19 or over, with medical prescriptions for at least two pharmaceutical drugs. Interactions were identified using DrugDigest, Medscape and Micromedex softwares. RESULTS: Most of the patients were female (69.8%), married (59.4%) and in the age group of 60 years or over (56.3%), with an income less than or equal to three minimum monthly salaries (81.3%) and less than eight years of schooling (69.8%); 90.6% of the patients were living with another person. The total number of pharmaceutical drugs was 406 (average of 4.2 medications per patient). The drugs most prescribed were antihypertensives (47.5%). The frequency of drug interactions was 66.6%. Among the 154 potential drug interactions, 4.6% were classified as major, 65.6% as moderate and 20.1% as minor. CONCLUSION: The high frequency of drug prescriptions with a potential for differentiated interactions indicates a situation that has so far been little explored, albeit a reality in household surveys.

          Translated abstract

          CONTEXTO E OBJETIVO: As interações medicamentosas fazem parte da prática corrente na clínica médica e a sua incidência oscila entre 3% e 5% nos pacientes fazendo uso da polifarmácia. O objetivo do estudo foi identificar a frequência de interações droga-droga potenciais em prescrições de pacientes adultos e idosos. TIPO DE ESTUDO E LOCAL: Inquérito farmacoepidemiológico de corte transversal, realizado de 12/2006 a 02/2007 no conjunto habitacional Parque Verde, Cascavel, Paraná, Brasil. MÉTODO: A amostra foi por conglomerado e estratificada, proporcional ao total de residências no conjunto habitacional, constituída de 95 residências, com 96 pacientes de 19 anos ou mais, sexo feminino e masculino, com prescrição de no mínimo duas especialidades farmacêuticas. As interações foram identificadas de acordo com os softwares DrugDigest, Medscape, Micromedex. RESULTADOS: A maioria dos pacientes pertencia ao gênero feminino (69,8%), em situação conjugal casada (59,4%), com renda menor ou igual a três salários mínimos (81,3%), faixa etária 60 anos ou mais (56,3%) e 8 anos ou menos de estudo (69,8%) com 90,6% dos pacientes moravam com mais outra pessoa. O total de especialidades farmacêuticas foi de 406, correspondendo a uma média de 4,2 medicamentos por paciente. Os fármacos mais prescritos foram os anti-hipertensivos (47,5%). A frequência de interações medicamentosas foi de 66,6%. Dentre as 154 interações medicamentosas potenciais, 4,6% foram classificadas como maior e 65,6% como moderada e 20,1% como menor. CONCLUSÃO: A alta frequência de prescrições de drogas com potencial de interações diferenciado indica uma situação ainda pouco explorada, mas real em pesquisa domiciliar.

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          Suspected adverse drug events requiring emergency department visits or hospital admissions.

          To analyse the contribution of adverse drug events (ADEs) to the overall number of referrals or visits at an emergency department, to determine the proportion of more severe episodes requiring hospital admission and to characterize the different causes of drug-related visits or admissions. A 1-year prospective collection of data on visits performed at an emergency department. All visits, observed during 1 week every month, were analyzed in order to identify suspected ADEs. The effects of age and sex on the frequency of ADE-related visits and admissions were evaluated. All patients hospitalized because of an ADE were followed up in order to collect information about progress and outcome of the events, which were also assessed in terms of avoidability. Among the 5497 patients who visited the Emergency Department over 1 year, 235 (4.3%) experienced an ADE, 45 of these (19.1%) were subsequently hospitalized, among whom there were five deaths. Dose-related therapeutic failures were the main causes of drug-related admissions (55.6%), whereas adverse drug reactions caused the most frequent drug-related visits to the Emergency Department (63.8%). Although the frequency of drug-drug interactions leading to a visit to the Emergency Department was small (3.8%), this type of event was more severe, because most of these patients were hospitalized. No age/sex effect was observed in the proportion of ADE-related hospital admissions. Twenty-five (1.4% of the total admissions) of the 45 ADE-related admissions were evaluated as preventable, contributing by more than 61% of the overall length of hospital stay. The high proportion of drug therapeutic failures leading to an admission highlights the need for public education, particularly to prevent non-compliance.
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            Potential drug-drug and drug-disease interactions in prescriptions for ambulatory patients over 50 years of age in family medicine clinics in Mexico City

            Background In Mexico, inappropriate prescription of drugs with potential interactions causing serious risks to patient health has been little studied. Work in this area has focused mainly on hospitalized patients, with only specific drug combinations analyzed; moreover, the studies have not produced conclusive results. In the present study, we determined the frequency of potential drug-drug and drug-disease interactions in prescriptions for ambulatory patients over 50 years of age, who used Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS) family medicine clinics. In addition, we aimed to identify the associated factors for these interactions. Methods We collected information on general patient characteristics, medical histories, and medication (complete data). The study included 624 ambulatory patients over 50 years of age, with non-malignant pain syndrome, who made ambulatory visits to two IMSS family medicine clinics in Mexico City. The patients received 7-day prescriptions for non-opioid analgesics. The potential interactions were identified by using the Thompson Micromedex program. Data were analyzed using descriptive, bivariate and multiple logistic regression analyses. Results The average number of prescribed drugs was 5.9 ± 2.5. About 80.0% of patients had prescriptions implying one or more potential drug-drug interactions and 3.8% of patients were prescribed drug combinations with interactions that should be avoided. Also, 64.0% of patients had prescriptions implying one or more potential drug disease interactions. The factors significantly associated with having one or more potential interactions included: taking 5 or more medicines (adjusted Odds Ratio (OR): 4.34, 95%CI: 2.76–6.83), patient age 60 years or older (adjusted OR: 1.66, 95% CI: 1.01–2.74) and suffering from cardiovascular diseases (adjusted OR: 7.26, 95% CI: 4.61–11.44). Conclusion The high frequency of prescription of drugs with potential drug interactions showed in this study suggests that it is common practice in primary care level. To lower the frequency of potential interactions it could be necessary to make a careful selection of therapeutic alternatives, and in cases without other options, patients should be continuously monitored to identify adverse events.
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              Evaluation of frequently used drug interaction screening programs.

              Drug-drug interaction (DDI) screening programs are an important tool to check prescriptions of multiple drugs. The objective of the current study was to critically appraise several DDI screening programs. A DDI screening program had to fulfil minimal requirements (information on effect, severity rating, clinical management, mechanism and literature) to be included into the final evaluation. The 100 most frequently used drugs in the State Hospital of Baden, Switzerland, were used to test the comprehensiveness of the programs. Qualitative criteria were used for the assessment of the DDI monographs. In a precision analysis, 30 drugs with and 30 drugs without DDIs of clinical importance were tested. In addition, 16 medical patient profiles were checked for DDIs, using Stockley's Drug Interactions as a reference. Suitability of DDI screening program (quality of monographs, comprehensiveness of drug list, statistical evaluation). Out of nine programs included, the following four fulfilled the above mentioned criteria: Drug Interaction Facts, Drug-Reax, Lexi-Interact and Pharmavista. Drug Interaction Facts contained the smallest number of drugs and was therefore the least qualified program. Lexi-Interact condenses many DDIs into one group, resulting in less specific information. Pharmavista and Drug-Reax offer excellent DDI monographs. In the precision analysis, Lexi-Interact showed the best sensitivity (1.00), followed by Drug-Reax and Pharmavista (0.83 each) and Drug Interaction Facts (0.63). The analysis of patient profiles revealed that out of 157 DDIs found by all programs, only 18 (11%) were detected by all of them. No program found more than 50% of the total number of DDIs. A further evaluation using Stockley's Drug interactions as the gold standard revealed that Pharmavista achieved a sensitivity of 0.86 (vs Drug Interaction Facts, Lexi-Interact and Drug-Reax with a sensitivity of 0.71 each) and a positive predictive value of 0.67. None of the four DDI screening programs tested is ideal, every program has its strengths and weaknesses, which are important to know. Pharmavista offers the highest sensitivity of the programs evaluated with a specificity and positive predictive value in an acceptable range.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Role: ND
                Role: ND
                Role: ND
                Role: ND
                Role: ND
                Role: ND
                Journal
                spmj
                Sao Paulo Medical Journal
                Sao Paulo Med. J.
                Associação Paulista de Medicina - APM (São Paulo )
                1806-9460
                July 2009
                : 127
                : 4
                : 206-210
                Affiliations
                [1 ] Universidade Estadual do Oeste do Paraná Brazil
                [2 ] Universidade Estadual do Oeste do Paraná Brazil
                [3 ] Universidade Estadual de Maringá Brazil
                Article
                S1516-31802009000400005
                10.1590/S1516-31802009000400005
                1f821f59-2dc2-4ded-ade6-c8ad99fa9d8a

                http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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                SciELO Brazil

                Self URI (journal page): http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_serial&pid=1516-3180&lng=en
                Categories
                MEDICINE, GENERAL & INTERNAL

                Internal medicine
                Adult,Aged,Drug interactions,Pharmacoepidemiology,Prescriptions, drug,Adulto,Idoso,Interações de medicamentos,Farmacoepidemiologia,Prescrição de medicamentos

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