We prospectively surveyed how frequently drugs were prescribed that could cause harmful drug interactions, and evaluated the effect of providing the physicians with information concerning drug interactions on the frequency of such prescriptions.
At seven pharmacies, the pharmacists checked how many pre-selected concurrent uses of the drugs were prescribed for 3 months. At one hospital, the physicians were provided with the information concerning drug interactions, and the change in the frequency of these prescriptions was surveyed.
Contraindicated drug combinations were scarcely prescribed; cisapride and erythromycin (or clarithromycin) was prescribed at 0.5 per 10, 000. Other combinations of drugs that could be potentially harmful were not rarely prescribed. After providing the information, such concurrent medications were less often prescribed.
Effective means of communicating information about drug interactions are needed. Providing clinicians with the information given by pharmacists in daily practice was thought to be one such means.
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