[The prescription and drug interactions: prospective study in 896 patients treated for arterial hypertension in general medicine].

The aim of this study was to investigate the occurrence of potential drug interactions in primary health care. It reports the analysis of 896 prescriptions for hypertensive patients collected from 237 general practitioners. The mean number of prescribed drugs was 4.55 +/- 2.14, and each patient received, on average, 1.92 +/- 0.92 antihypertensive drugs. All prescriptions were compared with a French computerized database of drug interactions (Micro-Vidal). A total of 1324 cases of potential drug interactions were found related to 552 patients (61.6 pour cent). Among the most dangerous interactions, there were 26 contra-indications and 168 unsuitable drug pairs. As reported in previous studies, there was a strong correlation between the number of prescribed drugs and the number of interactions. All in all, more than 16 per cent of prescriptions contained a contra-indication or unsuitable drug association. Potential drug interactions occur at a high rate in general practice. This raises questions about the best way to improve general practitioner training and to introduce preventive measures to reduce adverse drug effects.