b'Medicine & Research RX UpdateDrug Interactions andMultiple SclerosisPharmacists do their job best only when they haveall of the patients medication informationBy Ellen Whipple, Pharm.D. and Stephanie Watson, Pharm.D. candidatePrescriptionmedicationstotreatMS, and causing side-eects to medicine B. Thereprescription medication to treat the symptoms area varietyofpossibledruginteractionsof MS, prescription medications to treat other that can occur, and it is the role of diligentchronic diseases, prescription medications to healthcare providers, especially pharmacists,treat any acute illness, over-the-counter to ensure these drug interactions are identiedmedications the list of medications in a and prevented, when possible. medicine cabinet can seem endless. Managing Risk factors for drug interactions includethese medications at home can be cumbersome, older age, taking multiple medications, havingbut they can also pose a concern for healthcare chronic diseases, receiving care from multipleproviders: drug interactions.physicians, and using multiple differentIn a study assessing drug interactions in pharmacies. Fortunately, there are steps youwomen with multiple sclerosis of childbearing can take to decrease risk of experiencing drugage, the average patient was prescribed at interactions.least four medications, and a total of 1,033 Maintain an updated medicine list potentialdruginteractions wereidentied Polypharmacy is a term used to describe anamong 131 patients. That is an average of more instance when a patient is taking ve or morethan seven drug interactions per patient. medications. This is a common occurrenceDrug interactions occur when two or more for patients with complex disease states ormedications interact with one another in the multiple chronic diseases requiring treatmentbody in such a way that one or more of the frommultiplephysicians.Whenmultiplemedicines have an unanticipated eect. For physicians are involved in patient care, it isinstance, medicine A could increase the rate more dicult for each physician to know allmedicine B is cleared in the body, making ofthemedicationsprescribedbyanothermedicine B not work as well. Or the opposite physician. This can lead to the prescribingcould be true when medicine A is decreasing of duplicate medications, prescribing ofthe rate medicine B is cleared in the body, medications that are not clinically necessary,making medicine B stay in the body longer and medication misuse by the patient.msfocusmagazine.org 56'