Medication and Food Interactions

Course overview

Prescription medications can interact with foods and dietary supplements, causing adverse drug events in the patients you treat. Medication-food interactions can impair the intended actions of medications by altering their effectiveness, resulting in an increased risk for morbidity, hospitalization, or prolonged treatment. Older adults are at high risk for medication-food interactions due to their use of polypharmacy, resulting in a decreased quality of life if the prescribed medications are causing harm or not controlling their symptoms. This course will review how prescription drugs behave in the body, common medication-food interactions, and how to reduce the risk of adverse drug events.