In Vitro Interactions of Antibiotics with Drugs Used in Chronic Diseases

Objective: In this century, with the prolonged life expectancy, chronic diseases have become the most important cause of mortality and morbidity in the world and in our country. Frequent drug-drug interactions have made it necessary to update the doses of drugs in multiple drug use. In our study, we aimed to observe how the drugs that are frequently prescribed by physicians in the treatment of chronic and infectious diseases, together with standard bacteria and fungi strains in in vitro environment, change the effects of each other.
Methods: By combining antibiotic discs and drugs that are commonly used in chronic diseases (acetylsalicylic acid, amlodipine, atorvastatin, warfarin, metoprolol and clopidogrel) in in vitro environment, we determined the drug interactions (synergy/antagonism) by Kirby Bauer disk diffusion method.
Results: While most of the discs placed on the culture of Candida albicans through impregnation of drugs showed potentiation synergism with itraconazole and fluconazole, other microorganisms showed synergistic and sometimes antagonistic interactions with different drugs and antibiotics, whereas some of the drugs did not show any interaction with antibiotic discs.
Conclusion: Due to the strong relationship between advanced age and the number of prescribed drugs and the frequency of possible drug-drug interactions, the elderly people especially are susceptible to this situation. Infections caused by resistant bacteria cause an increase in disease/death rates and treatment costs. With the awareness that the only difference between drug and poison is the dose, all health professionals especially doctors and pharmacists and patients have a responsibility towards the rational use of drugs.