Analysis of potential drug-drug-interactions in outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital: A cross-sectional study

Potential Drug-Drug Interactions (pDDIs) possess a great risk in altering the therapeutic outcome in patients receiving multiple therapy. Monitoring the prescription and analyzing it for pDDIs before the start of therapy is the need of the hour in current clinical scenario. The present study aims to determine the prevalence of drug interactions in an outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital and also to prepare a list of common drug interactions in the study setting. A cross sectional prospective prescription chart review for 330 prescriptions was conducted at the outpatient pharmacy department of Daya General Hospital Ltd and Speciality Surgical Centre, Thrissur. Demographic variables like age, gender, number of drugs prescribed was extracted. Potential drug-drug interactions were determined using web-based drug interaction checkers. Out of 330 prescriptions screened, 286 pDDIs were observed. Out of 286 pDDIs, 54.2 % interactions should be monitored closely for any untoward effect. 22.4 % of pDDIs are of moderate severity, 18.5 % represented minor interactions, 3.5 % were major interactions and 3.5 % were of serious grade. Prevalence of pDDIs was found to be 86.7 % which is relatively high compared to a similar study (83.42 %) conducted in a tertiary care teaching hospital.