title: Drug interactions and the statins.
abstract: Drug interactions commonly occur in patients receiving treatment with multiple medications. Most interactions remain unrecognized because drugs, in general, have a wide margin of safety or because the extent of change in drug levels is small when compared with the variation normally seen in clinical therapy. All drug interactions have a pharmacokinetic or pharmacodynamic basis and are predictable given an understanding of the pharmacology of the drugs involved. Drugs most liable to pose problems are those having concentration-dependent toxicity within, or close to, the therapeutic range; those with steep dose-response curves; those having high first-pass metabolism or those with a single, inhibitable route of elimination. Knowing which drugs possess these intrinsic characteristics, together with a knowledge of hepatic P-450 metabolism and common enzyme-inducing and enzyme-inhibiting drugs, can greatly assist physicians in predicting interactions that may be clinically relevant. This article reviews the pharmacology of drug interactions that can occur with hydroxymethylglutaryl-coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitors (statins) to illustrate the scope of the problem and the ways in which physicians may manage this important therapeutic class of drugs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon.
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Herman
mesh_terms: D065607:Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme Inhibitors; D003577:Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004347:Drug Interactions; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors / Q000009:adverse effects; D006801:Humans; D019161:Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics / Q000494:pharmacology; D008099:Liver / Q000201:enzymology; D019338:Polypharmacy; D012449:Safety
chemical_list: D065607:Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme Inhibitors; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors; D019161:Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors; D003577:Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System