Psychiatrists’ and Infectious Disease Physicians’ Awareness and Knowledge Level of Drug-Drug Interactions Between Antiretrovirals and Psychotropics: A Comparative Questionnaire-Based Study

Abstract

Objectives: The incidence of drug-drug interactions (DDIs) increases with psychotropics in people living with HIV (PLWH). This study aimed to compare the knowledge of infectious disease physicians (IDPs) and psychiatrists about DDIs as primary outcome and to assess their knowledge, attitudes and awareness of DDIs as secondary outcome. Materials and Methods: The quantitative and comparative questionnaire methods were administered to IDPs and psychiatrists in online survey. The questionnaire included open-ended and multiple-choice questions on physicians’ sociodemographic and attitudes to DDIs and three hypothetical case scenarios. Information including patients’ age, sex, social and medical history, laboratory findings and all drugs were provided in each scenario. After providing brief DDI information, the case scenario question was asked again with pretest-posttest design. Results: Attitudes of 31 IDPs and 29 psychiatrists against ART-psychotropic DDIs were examined. Thirty-five (58.3%) of physicians emphasized that ‘average’ perceived competence in DDIs knowledge. Moreover, 53 physicians (88.3%) were affected by DDIs on prescription behavior. When we asked physicians that how often they informed their patients about DDI, 45 (75%) responded ‘often/always’. Major DDI was defined correctly by psychiatrists [12 (41.4%) vs. 23 (79.3%)] and IDPs [24 (77.4%) vs. 29 (93.5%)] before and after information brief (p<0.001). Conclusion: This is the first study to comparison of knowledge, attitudes and awareness of psychiatrists and IDPs towards antiretroviral-psychotropic DDIs. It was determined that the presence of DDIs influenced decision-making of physicians. Majority of physicians stated that they had an above-average of perceived level of knowledge, but their knowledge level to a DDI was insufficient.