drug interactions Flashcards
There can be interactions between which types of products?
- prescription or over-the counter medications and
- certain foods or “recreational” drugs, foods, or herbal remedies
With each added agent (drug), there is a __________ of the risk of drug interactions
multiplication
Which effects can drug interactions have?
either increase or decrease the therapeutic or toxic effect of a particular drug.
The greater the _______ level, the greater the incidence of adverse drug interactions.
poverty
When do drug-drug interactions occur?
reasons why you might take mutliple drugs
- Multiple drugs to treat one disorder.
- Multiple disorders requiring different drugs, such as chronic condition + acute infection.
- OTC meds, caffeine, nicotine, alcohol
- Elderly patients have a high incidence of drug interactions because they commonly take multiple
medications, some of them to sustain life, and they often have age related changes in drug clearance.
What are the Factors leading to drug interaction?
- Lack of information about what the patient is consuming
- Inadequate checking by the prescriber or pharmacist
- Individual variation in pharmacokinetics
- Variation in time of day when drugs are consumed
- Failure to monitor patient response / failure of the patient to report adverse symptoms, or misdiagnosis of a drug reaction.
What are Factors influencing outcomes of drug interactions?
patient factors and drug administration factors
- Patient factors: genetic variation, current diseases, diet, environment, smoking, alcohol, illegal drug use.
- Drug administration: dose, duration , sequence (ie. drug A before B or vice versa), the timing of consumption, route of administration
How do we classify drug interactions?
Look at consequence, site, mechanism, interaction type
What are the different consequences of drug interactions?
Beneficial or adverse
What are the sites of drug interactions?
External or internal
What are the mechanisms of drug interactions?
- Pharmacodynamic (two drugs act on the same receptor site to either magnify / decrease the effect)
- Pharmacokinetic (quite common)
- physiological (increases or decreases a physiological response)
What are the types of interactions used to classify drug interactions?
- Additive 1+1 =2
- Synergistic 1+1 = 3 (one drug magnifies the effect of
the other drug) - Potentiation 1+ 0 = 2
- Antagonism 1+ 0 = 0.5
Pharmacokinetic drug interactions occur when one drug alters the _____________ of another drug, which means that the ________ concentration is altered.
- absorption, distribution, metabolism or excretion
- plasma
Pharmacodynamic drug interactions occur when _______
two drugs act on the same site
What interacts with tetracycline and by what mechanism?
- milk and antacids
- prevents absorption by binding to it
Calcium carbonate interacts what what drug? By what mechanism?
- it prevents absorption of thyroxine (synthroid)
What effect do Agents used to stabilize gastric pH (ex. H2-blockers, proton-pump inhibitors) have?
alter the gastric pH and reduce the absorption of drugs such as antifungal drug ketoconazole
How can transit time in the small intestine be altered?
with diarrhea for instance, the drug can pass through so quickly that it’s not absorbed
How can absorptive surface area in the small intestine be altered?
drugs do not affect absorptive surface area, but some diseases do (ex. inflammatory bowel disease)
What are ways that drug absorption in the small intestine can be altered?
- Transit time
- Absorptive surface area
- Drug complexes can occur in the intestine