Author(s): Yasin I. Tayem, Marwa H. Al-Ghadani, Haitham A. Jahrami and Mazen K. Ali
Article publication date: 2019-09-01
Vol. 37 No. 3 (yearly), pp. 54-64.
247

Keywords

Psychiatric patients, non-psychotropic drugs, drug interactions.

Abstract

Background: In psychiatric patients, interactions among non-psychotropic drugs may be unintentionally overlooked. Aims: The aim of this study was to investigate the rate and degree of interactions among non-psychotropic drugs in patients suffering from mental illnesses in Bahrain. Methods: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study. A random sample of prescriptions ordered by the outpatient clinics of the psychiatry hospital from the 1st of January until the 31st of December 2017 was selected. The orders, which were issued for patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, depression, anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, and schizoaffective disorder were included in this study. The quantity and grade of drug interactions were measured by using Medscape drug interaction checker. The factors associated with those interactions were also examined. Data analysis was performed by using t-test, Chi-Square test, one-way ANOVA and multivariate analysis. Results: 995 prescriptions were included (55.4% males and 44.5% females) were included. The psychiatric diagnoses of the subjects were schizophrenia (39.1%), depression (23.1%), bipolar disorder (22.4%), schizoaffective disorder (11.2%) and anxiety disorders (4.1%). Polypharmacy was observed in 33.3% of the patients. Drug interactions were detected in 22.7% of the prescriptions. The grade of interaction was minor in 4.6%, significant in 15.6%, and serious in 2.5%. There was a positive correlation between the total number of interactions and polypharmacy (p< 0.001), and age over 35 years (p< 0.001). Moreover, interaction between those two risk factors was observed and resulted in a statistically significant increase in the total number of drug interactions (F = 6.286, p = 0.002). Conclusions: a relatively high rate of drug interactions was observed, associated with polypharmacy. There is a need to raise awareness among psychiatrists to check for non-psychotropic drug interactions in their patients. Classification according to the Dewey Decimal System: 615.5 (Pharmacology and Therapeutics).