Iranian Journal of War and Public Health

Introduction: Drug interaction is one of the most important problems in the treatment of patients suffering from different chronic intractable diseases. The war-injured veterans are one of the groups that are more prone to chronic refractory diseases.

Materials: The investigation was conducted on war-injured veterans referred to a multi-disciplinary clinic in Tehran. These veterans were injured during Iraq-Iran war (1980-1988). This multi-disciplinary clinic treats patients with chronic pain, refractory epilepsy, chronic headache, and spinal cord injury. Result: The number of drug interaction in war-injured veterans under investigation was between 1 to 40. A study on drug interactions was performed in 150 war-injured veterans. Drug interactions were observed in 148 patients with different intensity. The total number of drug interactions was 1239 in these patients. The most common type of drug interactions were observed in the patients who received different anti-depression drugs (52%).

Conclusion: The present study showed that the most war-injured veterans suffering from intractable diseases affected by drug interaction. The results of this study suggest the necessity and importance of devising some guidelines to prevent, or at least decrease drug interaction in the war-injured veterans.