Pattern of Possible Drug-Drug Interactions among Different Specialties at an Indian Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital

Abstract

To study the pattern of possible drug-drug interactions among different specialties at an Indian tertiary care teaching hospital.  The present study was   a retrospective study where the inpatient case records of psychiatry,  chest  & tuberculosis, gynecology & obstetrics and orthopedics were included. By using the software Micromedex 2.0, all the collected cases were screened for possible DDIs and the severity of the interactions was classified into minor, moderate and major. A total of 205 cases were screened for possible DDIs and about 120 (58.5%) cases were observed to be with possible DDIs. Among all the departments, moderate polypharmacy was observed to be more in the prescriptions (41.7%). A total of 314 possible DDIs were observed and most of the possible DDIs were of moderate severity (64.1%). Majority of the possible DDIs were found in the department of gynecology & obstetrics (42.4%) followed by the psychiatry department (29.6%). In order to reduce the DDIs, rationale prescriptions must be prescribed by considering the risk benefit ratio. Clinical pharmacists should take the responsibility in assisting all the prescribers for screening the possible DDIs in the prescriptions there by preventing them and providing a better pharmaceutical care in various specialties.