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Potentially Deadly Drug Interactions Found Mining FDA Complaint Bin (arstechnica.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the we-are-all-just-lab-rats dept.

Thousands of people are sent to the hospital each year from adverse drug-drug interactions that are difficult to predict and even trickier to track. To get around the problem, a team of researchers (working with the journalists at The Chicago Tribune) created a computer model to create side-effect profiles for prescription drugs. Then, they mined a massive database of drug-reaction complaints sent to the Food and Drug Administration, as well as 380,000 electronic health records. The results of the analysis so far suggest that four drug combinations "including the combination of the common antibiotic, ceftriaxone, with the over-the-counter heartburn medication, Prevacid (lansoprazole) may cause a potentially fatal heart rhythm.

23 of 55 comments (clear)

  1. AARRGGH by Moblaster · · Score: 3, Funny

    First po.... urg... heart attack!

  2. A link by NEDHead · · Score: 1

    to an article might be useful

    1. Re:A link by llamahunter · · Score: 5, Informative

      http://arstechnica.com/science... "The results of the analysis so far suggest that four drug combinations—including the combination of the common antibiotic, ceftriaxone, with the over-the-counter heartburn medication, Prevacid (lansoprazole)—may cause a potentially fatal heart rhythm." "The other problematic drug combinations that the data flagged as possibly producing the same heart problem are: cefazolin, an antibiotic, and meperidine, a pain medicine; meperidine and vancomycin, another antibiotic; and metoprolol, a blood pressure medication, and fosphenytoin, a seizure medication." Paywalled original story: http://www.chicagotribune.com/...

    2. Re:A link by Trax3001BBS · · Score: 1

      http://arstechnica.com/science...

      "The other problematic drug combinations that the data flagged as possibly producing the same heart problem are: cefazolin, an antibiotic, and meperidine, a pain medicine; meperidine and vancomycin, another antibiotic; and metoprolol, a blood pressure medication, and fosphenytoin, a seizure medication."

      Son of a Bit@# /. might of saved my life, at the least added to it; till this article I took Metoprolol.

    3. Re: A link by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Dude, don't stop the metoprolol... just avoid combining it with its evil twin. If you rely on /. for medical advice, all I can say is Darwin.

    4. Re: A link by Trax3001BBS · · Score: 1

      Dude, don't stop the metoprolol... just avoid combining it with its evil twin. If you rely on /. for medical advice, all I can say is Darwin.

      If one follows the links further in, it shows Metoprolol alone increases the QT level in 13% of the patients, 22% when comboded.
      http://www.chicagotribune.com/...

      A lengthened QT interval is a marker for the potential of ventricular tachyarrhythmias like torsades de pointes and a risk factor for sudden death.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      Metoprolol isn't manufactured as a QT adjuster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... in fact advised against it's use for that condition http://circep.ahajournals.org/... (very long read just search for Metoprolol).

      Odd or better without, and there are substitutes.

    5. Re: A link by Trax3001BBS · · Score: 1

      There are a fuck ton of drugs that increase the QT interval. To stop taking metoprolol based off of this article is beyond fucking retarded. Metoprolol is a very good drug. Speak with your cardiologist before being a fucking retard. -dr

      Ah heck, I have an appt this week it's been scheduled for awhile now, even used the website the Hospital set up to send a message to my Dr. Give me a break, you don't know of the secondaries.

      As for the "There are a fuck ton of drugs that increase the QT interval."

      I would think so after that article, it's that sudden death that has my attention. And yes I'm aware that in 2013 Metoprolol was the 19th most prescribed drug in the US.

  3. Linky? by Saeed+al-Sahaf · · Score: 1

    A linky might be nice...

    --
    "Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
    1. Re:Linky? by whipslash · · Score: 1

      There was a link but it wasn't showing on mobile. Now it is. Everyone remain calm on this fine Saturday

    2. Re:Linky? by Sarten-X · · Score: 1

      Look, we warned you when you arrived...

      Slashdotters are a bunch of cranky old farts who can't handle anything moving around on them, even if it looks exactly the same and only moved 15 pixels to the left. I expect there's at least one of us who reads the site on a VT100.

      Now that I said that, I realize I have a brand-new VT220 in a box in my closet, and I have a Raspberry Pi that needs a new job... Slashdotters are a bunch of mad engineers...

      --
      You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
    3. Re:Linky? by Saeed+al-Sahaf · · Score: 1

      I'm not on mobile. I'm a luddite. I have an "old-man" flip phone. Now get off my lawn.

      --
      "Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
    4. Re:Linky? by whipslash · · Score: 1

      Fair enough.

    5. Re:Linky? by whipslash · · Score: 1

      Yeah I'm aware. No place I'd rather spend my Saturday

    6. Re:Linky? by Fencepost · · Score: 1

      So how does the site look on Opera Mini?

      --
      fencepost
      just a little off
  4. Give the man some rope! - Some Russian guy... by Saeed+al-Sahaf · · Score: 1

    Slashdot "editor" - and I use that term loosely - BeauHD is new here. Thus we must cut him a limited amount of slack which to hang himself with...

    --
    "Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
  5. Can I be a Slashdot editor now? by RDW · · Score: 1

    TFA: http://www.chicagotribune.com/...

  6. Link to ARS Article (courtesy of Google) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/02/potentially-deadly-drug-interactions-found-mining-fda-complaint-bin/

  7. Re:And the 4 combinations are... by ColdWetDog · · Score: 2

    "The results suggest that four common drug combinations may cause a potentially fatal heart rhythm." ... Um, which are? May be important in here.

    I wouldn't get your panties in a twist just yet. Even though the methodology is interesting there is ** NO ** statistical analysis of the data so I'm presuming that non exists and this is one of those many, many "associative" studies that don't pan out in practice. To their credit, they try to correlate the drugs with some sort of plausible biochemical pathway but without any sort of kinetic data, it is impossible to determine if these things actually do happen and if they do, to what frequency.

    The combination of ceftriaxone (an antibiotic) and lanzaprole (a Prilosec clone for acid reduction) is extremely common in a hospitalized setting. If there was any reasonable clinical correlation we would likely have seen something by now.

    It is food for thought, good for a bunch of grants but I'd still buckle my seatbelt and stay away from errant meteors.

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  8. Re:Link doesn't show on mobile by whipslash · · Score: 1

    It's in there now

  9. FDA Complaint by PPH · · Score: 2

    Dear FDA,

    I have been prescribed this combination of drugs which I believe to be .... [Eeep! Aaack! Gurgle ........ Thud!]

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
    1. Re: FDA Complaint by sirlatrom · · Score: 2

      I wonder did he write that himself, or was he dictating it?

  10. When questioned... by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

    ...the interactions claimed they thought some of the complaints might have been for them.

  11. Use the (real) source, Dude by Terman · · Score: 1

    The original scientific paper can be found at http://link.springer.com/artic...
    and the supplementary material can be found at http://static-content.springer...