الخلاصة

Drug–drug interactions may result in management failure in addition to increased adverse effect of drugs. The screening of possible drug–drug interactions may increase the quality of patient care. The current study included checked of 211 prescriptions dispensed in three community pharmacies in Al-Najaf city by the computerized screening program to identify drug–drug interactions, the total number of interactions was recognized to be 40.95% of all prescriptions with prevalence of major drug–drug interactions was 13.95%. Most identified drug–drug interactions were recognized in prescriptions written by an internal medicine specialist, orthopedics, general practitioners, an ENT specialist and general surgeon. The ratio of drug–drug interactions/number of prescriptions increased with increase the number of drugs prescribed per patient. This study suggested that the role of the pharmacist should be moved from medication-oriented to patient-oriented and the clinical pharmacists should have a vital function in recognizing and avoiding drug–drug interactions in prescriptions dispensed to patients.