Original Research Article
Year: 2021 | Month: February | Volume: 8 | Issue: 2 | Pages: 513-519
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52403/ijrr.20210264
A Study to Identify and Assess Drug-Drug Interactions among Geriatric Patients - a Community Based Study
Satish S1, Ansu Thomas2, S. Siva3, A. R Shabaraya4
1,2,3,4Department of Pharmacy Practice, Srinivas College of Pharmacy, Valachil, Mangalore -574143
Corresponding Author: Ansu Thomas
ABSTRACT
Drug interaction occurs due to concomitant administration of drugs with food, beverage, supplement or another drug, which can alter the pharmacokinetics of another drug. Drug-drug interactions occur when two or more drugs react with each other, resulting in drug toxicity and increased adverse events. As age advances, more diseases develop resulting in the use of more medications, hence geriatrics are more susceptible to drug–drug interactions because of their increased age and altered physiological functions. The risk for drug interactions and drug-related problems increases along with multiple medications. Periodic evaluation of the patient’s drug regimen is essential to minimize polytherapy. In the present study, patients above 60 years of age with multiple chronic medications for various indicative ailments were included for identifying and assessing drug-drug interactions. On analyzing the data, total of 150 prescriptions exhibited polypharmacy, in which 138 prescriptions were prescribed with less than or equal to 10 drugs and 12 prescriptions with more than 10 drugs. Understanding the severity of drug-drug interactions out of 150 prescriptions, there were 196 interactions comprising 44 (22.7%) major ones; 133 (68%) moderate and 78 (40%) minor interactions. Potentially inappropriate medications were identified as per American Society of Beer’s geriatric guidelines 2019 which can be dangerous as there is an increased chances of drug toxicity and adverse events. This study suggests that pharmacist interventions can play a major role in identifying and assessing drug-drug interactions in geriatric patients.
Keywords: Drug-interactions, Polypharmacy, Geriatrics, Beer’s criteria, Pharmacokinetics.
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