A STUDY ON THE PREVALENCE AND SEVERITY OF POSSIBLE DRUG-DRUG INTERACTIONS IN PEDIATRICS DEPARTMENT AT AN INDIAN TERTIARY CARE TEACHING HOSPITAL

Objective: To study the prevalence and severity of possible drug-drug interactions in the department of pediatrics.Methods: Case records of the in-patients of the pediatrics department from the medical records department were included and the records of the ambulatory patients were excluded from the study. All the collected cases were subjected to check for the drug-drug interactions by using the software micromedex 2.0 and the interactions were categorized based on the severity into minor, moderate and major.Results: A total of 142 cases were screened for possible drug-drug interactions (DDIs) and among them 76 cases were observed to be with possible DDIs. The prevalence was found to be 53.5% in this study. Majority of the cases with possible DDIs were observed to be in females. Results of the age wise categorization revealed that majority of the possible DDIS were observed in children (2-12 y) followed by the infants (1 mo–2 y). The drug combinations amikacin+ampicillin, paracetamol+phenytoin and ofloxacin+ondansetron were found to be the frequently observed possible DDIs of minor, moderate and major severities respectively.Conclusion: Majority of the possible DDIs were of moderate severity followed by major. Clinical pharmacists should take the responsibility in assisting the pediatricians for screening the possible DDIs in the prescriptions there by preventing them and providing a better pharmaceutical care for the pediatric population.