Drug Interactions in Diabetes

Pakkir Maideen, Naina Mohamed
Dr Naina Mohamed Pakkir Maideen PhD, is basically a Pharmacologist, completed his Masters by 2000 and awarded Doctorate by 2013. He currently works with Dubai Health Authority, UAE and published numerous articles on Drug Interactions in various international peer reviewed journals.

In 2017, the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) estimated that about 451 million of global population are affected by Diabetes and the numbers are increasing daily. Poly-pharmacy and Drug interactions are very common among diabetic patients as they may receive multiple medications to manage various co-morbid conditions such as Hypertension, Dyslipidemia, Heart diseases, Depression, Infections and many others, along with their regular anti-diabetic medications. The risk of hypoglycemic complications might be increased in patients taking hypoglycemic agents along with the drugs inhibiting their metabolism or the drugs or herbs having hypoglycemic potentials. The healthcare professionals including Prescribers, Pharmacists, Diabetic educators and others should be aware of the drugs or herbs interacting with anti-diabetic medications, to prevent Adverse drug interactions. As the paragraph reading is confusing and boring, the mechanisms behind every drug interaction is depicted in schematic flow charts along with explanatory notes, to ease the understanding of Readers.