Analysis of polypharmacy events and drug-drug interaction in COVID-19 therapy

Abstract

Background: Polypharmacy is the use of five or more types of drugs in a therapy simultaneously. The use of polypharmacy therapy increases the potential for drug-drug interactions. In COVID-19 therapy, the use of varied antiviral and non-antiviral medications allow for increased polypharmacy and potential drug interactions. Objective: To determine the relationship between polypharmacy and drug-drug interactions in COVID-19 therapy. Method: This is an analytical observational study with retrospective data retrieval using secondary data sources. The sampling technique used purposive sampling with a total of 91 samples. Tracing potential drug interactions was reviewed through the Micromedex 2.0 application and the results obtained were analysed with the Spearman correlation analysis test. Result: The results of data obtained from non-polypharmacy events was 3.20% and polypharmacy events was 96.80%. The potential for drug interactions was at the Contraindicated category (3.78%), the Major Category (66.19%), the Moderate category (27.87%) and the Minor category (2.16%). The results from the test showed a very strong positive correlation between polypharmacy and potential drug interactions characterised by a p-value of 0.0001 and a correlation coefficient of 0.874. Conclusion: The higher the increase in polypharmacy, the higher the potential for drug interactions. Handling of drug interactions that occur can be given by giving a pause in the time of drug use, dose adjustment, and drug turnover.