Beneficial Pharmacokinetic Drug Interactions

A drug interaction occurs when the usual effects of a drug are enhanced or diminished by another drug being taken by the patient. In most cases, these interactions are unintentional and come to the attention of clinicians due to a therapeutic failure or adverse event that is undesirable. Polypharmacy and drug interactions are common particularly among seniors. A survey of elderly individuals living in the community reported that 29% were taking five or more prescription drugs regularly [1]. Although it is difficult to quantify how often a clinically significant drug interaction occurs, these investigators estimated that roughly 1 in 25 individuals were at risk. Juurlink et al. [2] found that many patients admitted to hospital with a variety of drugrelated adverse events had experienced a drug interaction.