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.