Evaluation of Potential Drug-Drug Interactions in the Prescriptions of Diabetic Inpatients, Seiyun City, Yemen

الملخص

Background: Patients with diabetes often have coexisting chronic health conditions such as hypertension, dyslipidemia, coronary artery disease, depression, and chronic kidney disease. Drug interactions are a daily challenge for physicians and screening all drug interactions in the prescriptions has become very cumbersome and virtually impossible.
The aim and objective of our study is to estimate the prevalence of Drug-Drug Interactions (DDIs) in diabetic patients and raise awareness among physicians to prevent the occurrence of some clinical adverse events.
Method: This is a cross-sectional observational retrospective study design conducted on diabetic patients admitted to Seiyun Hospital over 2 months from December 2023 to Feburary 2024.
Results: This study found that approximately two-thirds of patients were prescribed more than six medications. Most prescriptions that were prescribed for diabetic patients have at least one or more Drug-Drug Interactions per prescription.
We note that most of the antidiabetic agents that cause drug interactions with other medications were moderate and minor interactions; only six interactions of major type were observed with quinolone antibiotics.
Conclusions: This study found that the incidence of drug interactions in diabetic patients was very high. Therefore, the best way to avoid the occurrence of such drug interactions is to have a specialized pharmacist examine the total medication chart for each patient individually.