THE ROLE OF PHARMACEUTICAL CARE AVOIDING DRUG-NUTRIENT INTERACTIONS

Abstract

The pharmacist, through pharmaceutical care, may follow the pharmacotherapy, guiding and intervening when necessary, seeking improvements in health education and quality of life of the patient. The aim of this study was to review literature on the importance of pharmaceutical care to identify and solve drug-nutrient interactions, highlighting the implications of these interactions in the therapeutic effect of the drug or nutritional status. The research was conducted in books and scientific papers in databases such as Science Direct, Pubmed and Scielo between 2000 and 2014. The results showed numerous possibilities for drug-nutrient interactions, which can interfere with the effect of the drug and/or the nutritional state of the patient. Such interactions are often not identified, because the lack of knowledge of health professionals about the theme or due to the fasting requirement for bioavailability tests of drugs. Thus, the pharmacist, through pharmaceutical care and its extensive knowledge, may collaborate, reducing the risk of drug-nutrient interactions, increasing the patient’s confidence and essence of  the profession.