Managing drug interactions at the pharmacy counter. The case of NSAIDs]

Every day, pharmacists are confronted with risks of interactions. If some interactions are well known by the pharmacist and easily detectable the considerable number of possible interactions makes necessary the use of IT technology to highlight them. However, once the risk of interaction identified, we need to analyze it to respond appropriately taking into account various factors that may influence the occurrence of adverse consequences for the patient. The computer is invaluable at this level, but it does not replace the knowledge and thinking of the pharmacist essential for meaningful and practical interpretation of interaction alerts and rational and safe use of medicines. In addition, pharmacists must remain vigilant because, in some situations, interactions whose consequences can be serious, will not be identified by computer systems. To illustrate this, some significant interactions of anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are discussed in this article.