An observational study on drug interactions caused by proton pump inhibitors

Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are widely used to treat gastric acid-related diseases worldwide and in our country. The high reliability of PPIs also allows long-term use for appropriate indications in chronic diseases, which increases the possibility of drug-drug interactions. Therefore, it is clear that the usage of PPIs should be monitored in terms of drug-drug interactions to provide drug treatment success and patient safety. The ability of pharmacists, the closest health consultants, to identify these interactions during prescription fulfillment will significantly contribute to treatment success. Although many studies deal with the rational use of PPIs and drug interactions, the number of studies revealing observational drug interactions is minimal. This research aims to determine drug-drug interactions frequently encountered in community pharmacies for PPIs, which interact with many drug groups and are commonly prescribed. For this purpose, approximately 1700 prescriptions supplied by a selected community pharmacy, serving in Van, were examined. One hundred sixty-four of the prescriptions were evaluated by considering the study’s limitations. Drug-drug interactions were checked by three different electronic database. It was determined that 73 of 164 prescriptions had interactions in at least one of the three databases. In 73 prescriptions, 86 drug interactions were observed. 34% of the interactions detected in the study were caused by lansoprazole.