Potential Drug Interactions in War-Injured Veterans

Drug-drug interaction (DDI) is one of the most important problems in the treatment of patients suffering from different chronic intractable diseases. The war-injured veterans are one of the groups that are prone to chronic refractory diseases. This investigation was conducted on war-injured veterans treated in a multi-disciplinary clinic in Tehran. Using Poisson model, a total of 150 patients was collected from the patients treated in a multidisciplinary clinic during three months. The prescriptions were processed using the Drug Interactions Checker. Drug interactions in these patients were categorized to three levels, i.e. mild, moderate, and severe. Drug interactions were identified in 148 patients with different intensity. Based on FDA classification, the mild, moderate, and severe DDI were observed in 56 (37.3%), 139 (92.7%), and 74 (49.3%) patients, respectively. The total number of drug interactions was 1239 in these patients. The most common type of DDI was observed in the patients who received anti-depression drugs. This study shows that war-injured veterans are a group of patients with high risk of drug interaction. The results indicate the necessity and importance of devising some guidelines to prevent or at least decrease the drug interactions in war-injured veterans with chronic refractory diseases.