Hyperkalemia, self-medication, and over-the-counter drug usage in patients with cardiovascular disease in the perspective of polypragmasy

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death globally. 40 percent of the adult Romanian population is hypertensive, and only three out of seven patients are getting the appropriate treatment. Hyperkalemia is in a close relationship with certain cardiovascular diseases, although the influence of medical treatment on hyperkalemia is not yet established. The aim of our study was to evaluate the pharmacotherapy of the adult population with cardiovascular disease, and to analyze the administered drug therapy regarding polypragmasy (the concomitant usage of more than five different classes of substances), over-the-counter drugs and usage of drugs without indication, and to determine certain laboratory parameters. The cross-sectional, observational, prospective, pharmaco-epidemiological study targets the observation, recording and analysis of 301 adult patients’ pharmacotherapy and laboratory findings. Based on the demographic data we found that the population correlates with the adult population of our region. Hypertension was observed in 173 cases, and more than 60 percent of the patients were older than 65 years of age. Other comorbidities, such as ischemic cardiac disease, heart failure, arrhythmias, other cardiovascular diseases as well as chronic kidney failure and diabetes mellitus were positively associated with hypertension. In 50.8 percent of the cases usage of drugs without prescription was present. Likewise, multiple drug combinations were frequent with high rates of polypragmasy. Multiple drug combinations were observed, and self-medication rates were very high, which should be reduced substantially to obtain a more successful pharmacotherapy and a reduced drug interaction-induced side effect.