[Polymedication and oral antitumour therapies - which drug interactions should be considered?]

INTRODUCTION: Oral anticancer therapies offer various advantages but also entail risks due to their toxicity and narrow therapeutic ranges. Since these drugs are increasingly prescribed in patients with existing polypharmacy, identifying and assessing potential drug interactions is of great importance for safe and effective therapy. This article provides an overview of the most common pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic drug-drug interactions of targeted anticancer therapies, with focus on protein kinase inhibitors.

[Cough from a pharmacological point of view]. / Husten aus pharmakologischer Sicht.

Cough from a pharmacological point of view Abstract. Drugs with various protussive or antitussive mechanisms of action are used to alleviate cough symptoms. Phytopharmaceuticals also play an important role. When determining the etiology of persistent cough, long-term medication should be critically assessed and on suspicion of an adverse drug reaction adjusted as necessary.

[Opioids in palliative care]. / Opioide in der Palliative Care.

Opioids in palliative care Abstract. Palliative care encompasses the treatment and support of people with incurable illnesses, dying people and their relatives. Complex situations and a heavy symptom burden are common. Physical complaints such as pain and shortness of breath must be assessed and treated, with the goal of achieving the best quality of life. Opioids play an important role in this setting. In order to maximize benefit and minimize harm from adverse drug reactions, the type of opioid, its dose and route of application must be chosen individually according to the patient's situation. In addition to treating physical symptoms, psychological, social and spiritual needs must be addressed. All-round patient management and care is of paramount importance, which is why an interprofessional approach is essential.

Disease-Drug Interactions Requiring Special Attention.

This short review addresses disease-drug interactions requiring special attention, namely interactions between common conditions and over-the-counter medication and interactions between rare conditions and drugs that are absolutely contraindicated. We specifically examine over-the-counter analgesics, antiemetics and drugs used to treat allergy symptoms and underlying disease conditions they can exacerbate. Resources for avoiding disease-drug interactions in patients with rare conditions, such as myasthenia gravis, glucose-6-phosphate deficiency, mitochondriopathies and long QT-syndrome are given. We also discuss methods for avoiding disease-drug interactions in clinical practice. These include awareness, regular diagnosis- and drug-history taking, consulting the product information, good communication between healthcare providers and patient education. Furthermore, pharmacovigilance activities help in the early identification and characterization of adverse drug reactions resulting from disease-drug interactions.

A case of intoxication with tea made from Digitalis purpurea.

We present the case of a 34-year-old woman with recurrent depressive disorder who ingested purple foxglove with suicidal intent. She bought a foxglove plant (Digitalis purpurea) over the internet and used all of its leaves to make a tea that she then drank over a period of a few hours. Seventeen hours later, she developed abdominal pain, emesis and bradycardia and was admitted via the emergency department to the intensive care unit for further treatment and monitoring. The plasma digoxin concentration measured 3.53 nmol/l (therapeutic reference range 0.77-1.50 nmol/l) 21 hours after ingestion of the tea. She remained heamodynamically and neurologically stable, was treated with antiemetics and simple analgesia and did not require digoxin-specific antibodies. Despite normal renal function, her plasma digoxin half-life was prolonged (estimated 76 h), reflecting the long half-life of the parent compound digitoxin which is the main cardiac glycoside in Digitalis purpurea. She was transferred to psychiatric care 48 h after admission. In this report, we compare this case to other similar cases, which to date have only been rarely reported in the literature.

Myocarditis and pericarditis in association with COVID-19 mRNA-vaccination: cases from a regional pharmacovigilance centre.

In this article we summarize suspected adverse events following immunization (AEFI) of pericarditis, myocarditis and perimyocarditis that were reported by our regional pharmacovigilance centre after COVID-19 mRNA-vaccination and discuss their association with these vaccines. Seventeen cases were reported between March and July 2021. Of these, nine had perimyocarditis, five myocarditis and three pericarditis. Twelve patients were male (71%). The median age was 38 years (range 17-88). The most commonly observed presenting symptom was acute chest pain (65%). While 47% of the patients were previously healthy, 53% had at least one pre-existing comorbidity, with hypertension being the most prevalent (24%). The European Society of Cardiology diagnostic criteria for the reported AEFIs were fulfilled in twelve cases (71%). The AEFIs occurred after the first vaccine dose in six cases (35%), after the second vaccine dose in ten cases (59%) and after both doses in one case (6%). The median latency of all AEFIs taken together was 14 days (range 1-28) after the first vaccination and 3 days (range 1-17) after the second one. All patients except one were hospitalized (94%) with a median length of stay of 7.5 days (range 3-13). The majority of patients (n = 11, 65%) did not experience any complications, and 13 (77%) of the patients had recovered or were recovering at the time of discharge. In 16 of the 17 cases (94%), the association between the AEFI and mRNA-vaccination was considered possible by the pharmacovigilance centre.