Advances in Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety

Abstract

Drug Interaction in Psycho-Oncology: A Retrospective Glance over the Polymedication and Comorbidities in a Portuguese Psycho-Oncology Service

Margarida Duarte, Cristina Miguel and Emília Albuquerque

Introduction: The evaluation and prescription of psychotropic drugs in oncologic setting is of particular importance because of cancer patient´s susceptibility to drug interactions.
Objectives: Describe the frequency and type of comorbidities and the standard prescription of pharmaceuticals in a sample of cancer patients. Secondarily, reflect on the importance of clinical pharmacological interactions in this context, particularly in the prescription of psychotropic drugs. Material/methods: Descriptive study of a sample of patients referred for the first time to the Psycho-Oncology Unit of IPOCFG, between October and December 2011. A retrospective collection of the socio-demographic and clinical variables was made by consulting the clinical processes.
Results: From the sample of 60 patients included for analysis, 48,3% of the patients were on antineoplasic medication, 46,7% had prior psychiatric history and 70% were on psychotropic drugs; 75% presented other comorbidities. Only 8,3% of patients were free of medication and, from those under it, 63,6% consumed three or more distinct pharmacological classes.
Conclusions: There is a high frequency of co-morbidities and co-prescription of several classes of drugs which pose cancer patients at risk of interactions. It is important that physicians are able to predict these phenomena to prevent the loss of efficiency and minimize the adverse effects, particularly of antineoplastic.