RESUMO
Background: Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) to antiretroviral drugs have a varied pattern and wide spectrum of severity from mild to very serious. The lack of a pre-established time-reaction sequence hampers the causality assessment of ADRs. Recognition of pattern of ADRs to antiretroviral drugs in a particular setup might sensitize the reporters to report ADRs, especially in setups dependent on spontaneous reporting. Aim and Objectives: The study of pattern and time-reaction sequence for ADRs reported to antiretroviral drugs. Materials and Methods: Retrospective study was conducted at a first-line antiretroviral therapy (ART) center after obtaining approval from the Institutional Ethics Committee. Pattern of ADRs associated with ART was done by analyzing the type of ADRs, severity, and outcome of ADRs reported to antiretroviral drugs. Mean duration of time lapse between administration of drug to onset of adverse drug reaction was calculated. Descriptive statistics was used for data analysis. Results: There were 73 adverse reactions reported. Most common type of adverse reaction was cutaneous (53.42%) followed by anemia (31%). Causality assessment of most ADRs was concluded as possible (60.27%). Most ADRs were of moderate severity and 12% were severe reactions. Reactions such as anemia and neuropsychiatric ADRs often occurred late, while maculopapular rash usually occurred within 30 days of drug administration. Conclusions: ADRs to ART include an array of reactions ranging from mild rash to psychosis or severe anemia. Most of these reactions are of moderate severity and have a favorable outcome. Many of these reactions actually occur almost a month after initiating a drug regime suggesting the need for intensive monitoring around this time.
RESUMO
Background: The prevalence of polypharmacy is rising and is particularly relevant to cardiovascular diseases. Assessing the extent of polypharmacy and potential drug-drug interactions (pDDIs) is an essential first step in improving safe and rational use of drugs. Aims and Objective: This study aims to study the frequency of polypharmacy and pDDI in adult outpatients receiving cardiovascular drugs. Materials and Methods: Prescriptions of all adult outpatients receiving at least one cardiovascular drug were considered for the study. A total of 2027 prescriptions were analyzed for estimating rate of polypharmacy. Out of these, 335 randomly selected prescriptions were analyzed with the help of an online drug interaction checker software for estimating rate of pDDIs, commonly involved drug pairs and severity of pDDI. Results: The rate of polypharmacy in cardiac outpatients was 56.93% and that of pDDI was 78.81%. The commonly involved drugs in interactions were amlodipine, atenolol, calcium carbonate, atorvastatin, metformin, furosemide, and aspirin. One-third of pDDIs were categorized to be of minor severity while half of the pDDIs belonged to monitor closely category. Conclusion: Polypharmacy and pDDI are common in cardiac outpatients.