Current CDC Guidelines and Drug-Drug Interactions
Drug-drug interactions occur when a medicine interferes or affects the activity of a second drug when administered together. Such interactions produce synergetic or antagonistic effects (Juarez-Cedillo & Martinez-Hernandez, 2016). Such synergetic effect increases the effect of a drug when administered together with another one. An antagonistic effect is the converse of the synergetic result. Advanced nursing practice acknowledges the role of protecting, promoting, and optimizing health.
It achieves this goal by deploying mechanisms that help to prevent illnesses and injuries, thanks to evidence-based practices such as those provided by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The current CDC guidelines can be applied by advanced nursing in patient education to achieve such prevention roles. With reference to drug-drug interactions, the guidelines provide evidence-based approaches to advanced nursing practitioners concerning how to use two drugs in treating two ailments simultaneously while producing the required outcomes.
The CDC guidelines for the drug-drug interaction are specific. Therefore, the manner in which advanced nursing practice can use them in patient education requires some explicit considerations. For example, when treating tuberculosis among HIV patients, an advanced nurse using the guidelines should educate them (patients) to consider a treatment option that incorporates regimen, including rifamycins, in the entire course of treatment (CDC, 2013).
However, consistent with the current CDC guidelines, patients must know that if they do not exhibit severe side effects that are associated with rifamycins or in case the isolate is resistant to rifamycins, such treatments should be considered.
Current CDC Guidelines and Food-Drug Interactions
Food-drug interaction is said to happen whenever interference occurs between food and medicines taken by a patient. Such interactions may occur for both over-the-counter medicines and prescriptive drugs. An effective application of the current CDC guidelines in advanced nursing patient education can help to reduce these effects. The guidelines provide developed nurses with information to be disseminated to patients.
Such a message clarifies on how to effectively prevent food-drug interaction, for instance, by avoiding certain foods or using particular foodstuffs alongside medication. For example, the guidelines recognize that food-drug interactions emanate from changes induced by foods when a patient is on a prescribed medication process (Tannenbaum & Sheehan, 2014).
Considering that clinical effects have a relationship with the bioavailability of drugs, the amount of medicine that is allowed to circulate in the body is an important pharmacokinetic parameter that advanced nurses should consider in educating patients on food-drug interactions. Hence, CDC regulations provide quantifiable clinical effects of various drugs following the intake of certain foods.
Using the current CDC guidelines, advanced nursing practitioners can educate patients on the appropriate foods when using drugs that have specific active components. The objective here is to reduce or prevent negative interactions while promoting positive results. For instance, some foods may impair drug absorption. Others can alter the intended effect of some medicines. For example, the grapefruit has some drug elements that contain cholesterol. Such components heighten the drugs’ side effects. Similar effects occur after eating foods rich in potassium such as bananas, especially when taking drugs with ACE inhibitors (Tannenbaum & Sheehan, 2014).
Advanced nursing practitioners can use the CDC guidelines on such foods and drugs to help patients in making the right feeding choices when taking particular drugs. For example, to prevent delayed drug absorption, dairy products should not be taken with antibiotics. In some situations, the guidelines specify the necessary time delays before or after eating when certain drugs should be taken.
References
CDC. (2013). Managing drug interactions in the treatment of HIV-related tuberculosis. Web.
Juarez-Cedillo, T., & Martinez-Hernandez, C. (2016). Clinical weighting of drug–drug interactions in hospitalized elderly. Basic and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, 118(1), 298–305.
Tannenbaum, C., & Sheehan, N. (2014).Understanding and preventing drug-drug and drug-gene interactions. Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology, 7(4), 533–544.