Avoiding drug interactions: Here’s help
You can’t count on an electronic prescribing system to catch all potential drug-drug interactions. These at-a-glance tables will help you minimize risk.
Simvastatin + amiodarone or itraconazole. Either of these antiarrhythmic agents decreases simvastatin metabolism, raising the risk of myopathy; with amiodarone, however, the likelihood of an adverse outcome is especially high. In 2008, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning to healthcare professionals of the increased risk for rhabdomyolysis when simvastatin doses greater than 20 mg are administered together with amiodarone.27 The agency issued a safety review of simvastatin, warning of its potential for DDIs with amiodarone and numerous other medications, earlier this year.28
As John’s case illustrates, use of lovastatin with amiodarone should be avoided, as well.
Keep others safe: Report adverse events
When a DDI occurs despite your best efforts, you can help ensure that other patients do not experience the same adverse outcome by reporting it to MedWatch, the FDA’s voluntary safety information and adverse event reporting program. Go to https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/medwatch/medwatch-online.htm to file a report online.
CORRESPONDENCE Ignazio Grattagliano, MD, General Medicine, Department of Internal and Public Medicine, University of Bari, P.zza G. Cesare, 11 – 70124, Bari, Italy; i.grattagliano@semeiotica.uniba.it
