In vitro interactions of antibiotics with drugsused in chronic diseases

Aim: 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. As we are at the top of antibiotic consumption, this has triggered the development of resistance to antibiotics. 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 our infectious agent in in vitro environment, change the effects of each other. Material and Method: By combining antibiotic discs and drugs that are commonly used in chronic diseases (aspirin, amlodipine, atorvastatin, warfarin, metoprolol, metformin, and clopidogrel) in in vitro environment, we determined the drug interactions (synergy/antagonism) by Kirby Bauer disc diffusion method and the change in minimal inhibitory concentrations (MIC) by microdilution method. Results: While most of the discs placed on the culture of Candida albicans through impregnation of drugs showed potentiation synergism with ITR and FLU, other microorganisms showed sometimes synergistic and sometimes antagonistic interaction with different drugs and antibiotics. Whereas, some of our drugs showed no interaction with antibiotic discs. We found that the use of combination in which we performed microdilution method, reduced MIC values. Conclusion: Due to the strong relationship between advanced age and the number of prescribed drugs and the frequency of possible drug-drug interactions, our 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, must fulfill their duties and responsibilities regarding rational drug use.