Incidence of drug interactions in intensive care units in tertiary care settings: Classification, facts and measures

Abstract

Drug-drug interactions (DDIs) are extremely significant concern, particularly in sensitive population including pediatric and geriatric. Propensity for the development of DDIs is high in patients admitted at intensive care units (ICU). This study was conducted to evaluate the DDIs incidence, facts and measures in ICU. From a total of 150 cases studied for ICU patients, with the mean age of 56.37±12.45 years, 55.33% were male and the rest were female 44.66%. The demographic information like age, gender and main diagnosis details of study participants that were extracted from the patients’ clinical record. A statistically significant association between the drug interaction and the number of drugs prescribed per prescription was observed (p<0.0001). Concerning the onset of outcome, 52% of DDIs distinguished as delayed onset of effect (past 24 hours) and 35% were categorized as rapid onset (within 24 hours). Despite the facts regarding patient safety and minimizing DIs error, polypharmacy is still frequent in critically ill patients admitted in ICU attributed high risk of adverse reactions due to use of multiple interventions to treat severity of disease condition. Such studies may be used to develop an effective tool for the diagnosis and management of DDIs.