Praktické lekárnictvo 4/2021

Drug interactions of analgesics in clinical practice

Pain constitutes an unseparable part of life. Its perception, despite its aversive nature, is a fundamental prerequisite of the existence of a human. It represents a positive, warning signal for the organism in its acute state. Intense and long-lasting pain loses its biological importance and protective function. It is the reason for repeated medical visits and medication overuse. Interactions are considered a negative consequence of combination therapy in clinical practice and represent a part of medication risk. The risk of interactions with analgesics increases as a consequence of their frequent prescriptions within combination therapy. Pharmacotherapy of pain represents one of the key problems of modern medicine, apart from high consumption of analgesics, in spite of the existing schemes of the World Health Organisation and other companies. A clinical pharmacist who has sufficient knowledge about pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics of analgesics has a key role when choosing a suitable medicine for treatment of pain and can significantly contribute to the optimization of pharmacotherapy of pain and increase the quality of life of patients.

Keywords: pharmacotherapy of pain, medical interactions, analgesics