Prevalence and patterns of use of concomitant medications among participants in three multicenter human immunodeficiency virus type I clinical trials

Many HIV-infected people enrolled in clinical trials of zidovudine (ZDV) may be using a variety of other drugs concurrently. Researchers studied 2,801 HIV-infected people participating in clinical trials of ZDV to assess use of non-ZDV drugs. Results revealed that more than 85% of patients reported using non-ZDV medications during the clinical trials. A total of 43,311 uses of drugs other than zidovudine were reported. More patients with advanced HIV-infection used non-ZDV medications than patients with earlier stages of the disease. AIDS patients reported using an average of 7.1 different drugs per month. Patients with AIDS-related complex, or ARC, used an average of 3.1 drugs per month and patients with no symptoms used an average of 2.7 drugs per month. The most commonly used drugs among all patient groups were anti-infectives, analgesics or antipyretics, and vitamins. In general, patient characteristics other than disease progression did not affect use of non-ZDV drugs.