INTRODUCTION: Recognition of potentially harmful drug interactions is one of the duties of healthcare. However, solutions involving databases are fraught with contradictions due to the lack of standardized principles and data. AIM: The aims of the authors were to perform a comparative evaluation of Hungarian and international databases and to explore ambiguities and contradictions in order to develop more standardized criteria for screening interactions. METHOD: Four Hungarian and two English-language websites and software, and the summaries of product characteristics were compared. The authors analyzed 40 drug-drug and 8 drug-supplement interactions and looked at 8 cases, which represent 28 pairs of interacting substances. RESULTS: The databases warn about most interactions, but these warnings were rarely helpful in preventing undesired consequences. The authors found discrepancies between the databases in 70% of interactions. When looking at different products with the same active ingredients, discrepancies cropped up in 0-66.7% of the cases. Up to 80% of searches for supplementary product interactions did not produce satisfactory results. CONCLUSIONS: In the present situation mapping these ambiguities and creating a standardized classification system would be advantageous.
INTRODUCTION: Recognition of potentially harmful drug interactions is one of the duties of healthcare. However, solutions involving databases are fraught with contradictions due to the lack of standardized principles and data. AIM: The aims of the authors were to perform a comparative evaluation of Hungarian and international databases and to explore ambiguities and contradictions in order to develop more standardized criteria for screening interactions. METHOD: Four Hungarian and two English-language websites and software, and the summaries of product characteristics were compared. The authors analyzed 40 drug-drug and 8 drug-supplement interactions and looked at 8 cases, which represent 28 pairs of interacting substances. RESULTS: The databases warn about most interactions, but these warnings were rarely helpful in preventing undesired consequences. The authors found discrepancies between the databases in 70% of interactions. When looking at different products with the same active ingredients, discrepancies cropped up in 0-66.7% of the cases. Up to 80% of searches for supplementary product interactions did not produce satisfactory results. CONCLUSIONS: In the present situation mapping these ambiguities and creating a standardized classification system would be advantageous.
Keywords:
drug information; drug interactions; drug–supplement interaction; gyógyszer-információ; gyógyszer-interakció; gyógyszerkölcsönhatás; interaction database; interaction screening; interakciós adatbázis; kölcsönhatásszűrés; megelőzés