Ali Qureshi, Muhammad Ali Ghoto, Abdullah Dayo, Mudassar Iqbal Arain, Rabia Parveen, Altaf Mangi.
Drug-drug interactions (DDIS); prevalence of various levels in prescriptions at public sector teaching hospital of Hyderabad, Pakistan.
Professional Med J Jan ;24(2):239-43.

Introduction: Drug-drug interaction refers to an altered or impaired response of drug as a resultant of the other drug’s activity. However, recently advancement in field of therapeutics has leaded the therapy toward more rational and logical trend in order to improve the patients’ health with respect to cost effectiveness. Objective: To assess the various levels of DDIs in Prescriptions at public sector teaching hospital of Hyderabad, Pakistan. Study Design and Settings/Methodology: A descriptive observational questionnaire based study has been conducted by collecting initially 250 random prescriptions of various patients prescribed with multiple drugs. Tertiary care hospital OPD and In-patient wards were visited for a period of 06 months. The Prescriptions (℞) so collected were analyzed and assessed individually for drug interactions using Standard drug interaction software i.e.. Lexi-comp’s Lexi-Interact, Drug Information Handbook, Hansten and Horn’s drug interactions. Results: For this study, a total 250 Prescriptions were collected. It was observed that 30 (12%) prescriptions contained with single medication, 10 (4%) prescriptions were unreadable, 210 (84%) prescriptions were contained more than one medication. Moreover, 210 (84%) poly-pharmacy prescriptions focused keenly. Subsequently, 51 (24%) prescriptions ensured the prevalence of DDIs and 159 (76%) were NonDDIs prescriptions. Similarly, 13 ℞ contained four or more than four drugs, 32 ℞ contained three drugs and 06 prescriptions contained two drugs correspondingly. Conclusion: It was clearly concluded that the most potential reason of DDIs are Poly pharmacy. So it is of utmost need to enhance the health care policies in overall healthcare system in order to antagonize DDIs associated morbidity and mortality among society.

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