Journal of psychiatric practice
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Multiple medication use is associated with an increased incidence of adverse drug-drug interactions (DDIs), medication errors, noncompliance, hospitalization, and healthcare costs. Drugs acting systemically or gastrointestinally ("SG" drugs) are of particular concern because of their potential to interact. A better understanding is needed of the relationship between multiple medication use, particularly of SG drugs, and age, number of prescribers, and common drug regimens. ⋯ The uniqueness of SG drug regimens suggests no single prescriber could have extensive clinical experience with even a small fraction of the drug regimens patients receive. These findings suggest that potential DDIs cannot be predicted based on occurrence of common drug regimens in a general patient population. A follow-up study (reported separately) investigated whether common drug regimens can be identified by selecting for a specific drug treatment (e.g., an antidepressant). The improved ability to predict DDIs is particularly relevant for psychiatric patients, who are at increased risk for DDIs because of greater frequency of multiple medication use. In addition, DDIs may present in this population in ways that mimic worsening of primary symptoms, which may lead to increased doses of the medication that is actually responsible for the problem, causing still more toxicity.