Potential drug interactions in the intensive care unit and the role of nurses in their prevention: An integrated review

Bachground:

 Drug interactions include chemical reactions that often occur between two or more drugs or even when a drug is taken with food, drink, or a supplement. Therefore, the aim of this current review is the determine potential drug interactions in the intensive care unit, and the role of nurses in their preventions.

This is a single-article review. Our available sources include all studies conducted on drug interactions in elderly care units between 2012 and 2024 that are included in this study. The databases searched include: CINAHL, Scopus, PubMed, Cochrane Data Base of Systematic Reviews, Wiley, Science Direct, Iran Medex, Scientific Information Database (SID), and Google Scholar. The Persian-English keywords searched were: "drug interactions", "potential drug interactions", “Adverse events",“ intensive care units ",“ critically units ", “Risk of drug coexistence”,” Drug accident”, “adult “and “elderly”.

The findings of this study showed that by searching for relevant keywords in the initial stage, 34 studies were found. 17 articles were excluded for reasons such as lack of relevance to the topic and unavailability of the full text of the article. Finally, 12 valid articles were confirmed, of which 6 were Persian articles and 6 were in English.

The study results showed that drug interactions have a direct relationship with low Apgar scores, age, long-term stays in the department, and the number of doctors. The drugs that were identified as the most interfering in the department, based on both Persian and English articles, are phenytoin, phenobarbital, and fentanyl.