Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 9, 2026

Diagonal Method to Measure Synergy Among Any Number of Drugs
Published on: June 21, 2018
[Detection by a computer program of drug interactions in chronic patients. Its practical usefulness in a health
F Lobato Madueño1, J Portillo Strempel, A Pérez Vicente
1Centro de Salud, El Palo, Málaga.
Objectives:
To evaluate a computer programme which was used to detect drug interactions (DI) from the Long Treatment Cards (LTC) and to analyse the factors possibly linked to these interactions.
Design:
An observational, descriptive study.
Setting:
Primary Health Care: an urban Health Centre.
Patients:
The reference context was 1,640 chronic patients being cared for at a nursing clinic. We selected 141 cases at random by taking 10 LTCs from each list. (Alpha risk = 0.05; Confidence Interval = 0.05).
Results:
The sample was mainly feminine (2:1), with an average age of 67. The most common diagnosis was Diabetes or AHT. 55% had accumulated 4 or more medicines per card, with multiple medication most common among men. The programme enabled 58 drug interactions, affecting 34% of the LTCs, to be identified.
Conclusions:
Special attention should be paid to the LTCs with 7 or more drugs prescribed because of their association with DI and NIV. The programme's efficacy would increase, both if the DIs were more accurately defined and if the programme could be computerised and applied massively to chronic treatments.
Related Concept Videos
Pharmacovigilance
This process, termed pharmacovigilance, aims to detect, evaluate, and minimize harmful effects related to medication use. The data collection for pharmacovigilance depends on spontaneous reporting systems, where healthcare professionals or patients voluntarily report suspected ADRs.
In some cases, there...
Therapeutic Drug Monitoring: Overview and Classification
Therapeutic Drug Monitoring: Drug Analysis Methods
Pharmacokinetics: Drug–Drug Interactions
Drug Dosing: Geriatric Patients
Drug toxicity: Drug–Drug Interaction

