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Updated: Jun 25, 2025

Imaging Features of Systemic Sclerosis-Associated Interstitial Lung Disease
Published on: June 16, 2020
Polypharmacy, drug-drug interactions, and adverse drug reactions among systemic sclerosis patients: A cross-sectional
Sara Boukhlal1, Laurent Chouchana2, Malika Saadi3
1Service de Médecine Interne, Centre de Référence Maladies Systémiques Autoimmunes et Autoinflammatoires Rares d'Ile de France, de l'Est et de l'Ouest, Hôpital Cochin, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP); APHP-CUP, Hôpital Cochin, Université Paris Cité, F-75014, Paris.
Objectives:
Polypharmacy, drug-drug interactions (DDI) and related adverse drug reaction (ADR) are understudied in SSc. The aim of this work was to determine the prevalence and determinants of DDI and ADR in a real-life prospective cohort of SSc patients.
Methods:
We performed a retrospective analysis of the drug prescriptions of SSc patients admitted to the daily scleroderma clinic between January 2020 and April 2022. DDI were identified using 2 prescription analysis applications, and adjudicated related ADRs occurring during a one-year follow-up were reported. Risk factors for DDI and ADR were identified using multivariate analysis.
Results:
One hundred and eight SSc patients were included. The median number of medications per patient was 6 [4-9]. Seventy-one (65.7 %) patients had 5 or more medications, and 23 (21.3 %) had 10 or more. Seventy-two (66.7 %) patients had DDIs on their prescriptions at inclusion. Patients with DDIs had more medications than patients without DDIs (7 [5-10] versus 3 [2-5], p < 0.0001). Six (8.3) patients experienced ADRs during the one-year follow-up. Patients with ADRs had more medications (14 [10-18] versus 7 [5-10] p < 0.001) and more DDIs (12 [7-32] versus 3 [1-6]; p < 0.001) than patients without ADRs. Multivariate analysis confirmed that the number of prescribed medications was independently positively associated with DDIs (OR: 2.25 [1.52-3.32], p < 0.0001) as well as with ADRs (OR: 1.68 [1.17-2.40], p < 0.01).
Conclusions:
SSc patients are significantly exposed to polypharmacy, DDIs and related ADRs, particularly in cases of severe illness, and especially if 5 or more medications are prescribed.
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