1. Drug interactions avoided-a useful indicator of good prescribing practice
- Author
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David Williams, Alan Kelly, and John Feely
- Subjects
Pharmacology ,Drug ,medicine.medical_specialty ,business.industry ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Warfarin ,General medical services ,Drug interaction ,Ranitidine ,Internal medicine ,Anesthesia ,Relative risk ,medicine ,Pharmacology (medical) ,Cimetidine ,Medical prescription ,business ,medicine.drug ,media_common - Abstract
Aims To develop an index of quality prescribing in general practice by investigating the incidence of potential drug interactions when medicines were coprescribed within the State supported General Medical Services (GMS) in Ireland. Methods We determined an odds ratio (OR), as a measure of the relative risk of being exposed to a potential interaction, comparing the use of the H2-receptor antagonist, cimetidine, with that of the noninteracting agents ranitidine, famotidine and nizatidine in users and nonusers of warfarin, phenytoin and theophylline. Results and conclusions In 86 510 prescriptions for the H2–receptor antagonists potentially interacting drugs were dispensed to 8188 (9%) patients in the Eastern Health Board Region of the GMS. We found that prescribers were significantly less likely to use cimetidine (OR = 0.20,95% CI 0.17–0.21, P
- Published
- 2000
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