Drug Interactions: The Most Common, the Worst, and What to Do About Them in Long-Term Care

Abstract

The medical community is aware of the issue of medication interactions and has made significant attempts to track them, but they have been unsuccessful so far in predicting and preventing drug interactions. Unfortunately, there was no foolproof way to anticipate medication interactions; instead, people had to wait for them to show up in the scientific literature. Known drug interactions may not occur in all patients taking the medicine or even another drug in the same class, adding more complexity and unpredictability to the already difficult process of prescribing medications. Most medication interactions are unpredictable and happen with chronic drug usage. This article focused on the effects, cause, treatment, and prevention of potentially lethal medication interactions that may arise in long term care settings. The possibility for adverse events and the processes behind them are best understood in the context of long-term care medication combinations.