Drug- Drug Interactions (DDIs) are one of the most significant problems with drug prescribing. The present study was conducted to analyse potential DDIs in inpatients of medicine wards of a tertiary care hospital, based on severity, mechanisms etc. and to create awareness about the implications of such potential DDIs among treating physicians. Data from patient’s prescriptions admitted to the medicine department was collected over a period of 3 months and prescriptions were analysed for potential DDIs using medscape online drug interaction checker software. In this study, out of 200 prescriptions reviewed, 177(88.5%) prescriptions had potential DDIs. The total number of potential DDIs was 1135. Pharmacodynamic DDIs (58.23%) were most common as compared to pharmacokinetic DDIs (38.50%). Based on severity, 0.08% were contraindicated, 6% were serious, 72% to be monitor closely and 22% were minor DDIs. The most common drug class involved in DDIs were antibiotics(234). It was observed that polypharmacy played a crucial role for such a rise in number of DDIs. The study revealed that a large number of DDIs were clinically significant and seen with routinely used drugs in clinical practice. Hence, it is the need of the hour to create awareness among treating physicians the implications of DDIs and to prescribe carefully to minimise such DDIs in future.
