Severity of Drug Interactions

Medication incidents are a significant problem for all health systems in the world. Drug interactions are one cause of medication incidents. Drug interaction compendia can be used to populate clinical decision support systems. There has not been any comprehensive assessment of the validity of the severity classification used in the international drug interaction compendia. The current prospective observational study of six months duration was designed to assess the severity of drug interactions between various drug information compendia screened from prescriptions of general medicine department. The DDI's was assessed eventually in comparison with Stockley's, Medscape and BNF respectively based on the rating, severity and significance, and inferences. The main drug classes of DDI's were aminoglycoside gentamicin, ARB's, antacids, aspirin as analgesics, calcium channel blockers, beta blockers and NSAID's.