Incidence of statin-drug interactions in Croatian community pharmacy

Statins are among the most frequently issued drugs that patients usually need to take for a lifetime. They are often an integral part of a polytherapeutic approach in preventing and treating cardiovascular diseases. As such, they might often interact with drugs prescribed for treating acute and chronic conditions. A pharmacist is the final professional control before a drug reaches the patient and his role in preventing drug-drug interactions is crucial. The objective of this research was to analyse the incidence and relevance of potential drug interactions with statins in community pharmacy. We retrospectively analysed the prescribed pharmacotherapy of 153 patients who were taking statins. Lexicomp® Lexi-Interact™ Online (Lexi-Comp, Inc., Hudson, USA) was used to identify interactions. The mean age of study patients was 65.5 (52.3% women). The most frequently used statin was atorvastatin and the least used was fluvastatin. The average number of coprescribed drugs was 4. The highest number of interactions which required enhanced patient surveillance were registered with atorvastatin, while interactions which might need specific therapy modification were mostly seen with simvastatin. Systematic and regular control of potential clinically significant drug-drug interactions in the prescribed pharmacotherapy is important for therapy outcomes and appropriate pharmaceutical surveillance in issuing pharmacotherapy.