Assessment of potential drug-drug interactions with a prescription claims database.

Purpose: The prevalence of 25 clinically important potential drug-drug interactions (DDIs) in a population represented by the drug claims database of a pharmacy benefit management company (PBM) was studied.

Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional analysis of pharmaceutical claims for almost 46 million participants in a PBM was conducted to determine the frequency of 25 DDIs previously identified as clinically important. A DDI was counted when drugs in potentially interacting combinations were dispensed within 30 days of each other during a 25-month period between April 2000 and June 2002.

Identification of serious drug-drug interactions: results of the partnership to prevent drug-drug interactions.

Objective: To develop a list of clinically important drug-drug interactions (DDIs) likely to be encountered in community and ambulatory pharmacy settings and detected by a computerized pharmacy system.

Design: Cross-sectional, one-time evaluation.

Setting: United States in fall 2001.

Concordance of severity ratings provided in four drug interaction compendia.

Objective: To evaluate the agreement among drug-drug interaction (DDI) compendia as to designation of interactions as having the greatest clinical importance ("major" DDIs).

Design: Cross-sectional, one-time evaluation.

Setting: United States in fall 2001.