Skeletal muscle relaxant drug-drug-drug interactions and unintentional traumatic injury: Screening to detect three-way drug interaction signals

Aim The aim of this study was to identify skeletal muscle relaxant (SMR) drug-drug-drug interaction (3DI) signals associated with increased rates of unintentional traumatic injury. Methods We conducted automated high-throughput pharmacoepidemiologic screening of 2000-2019 healthcare data for members of United States commercial and Medicare Advantage health plans. We performed a self-controlled case series study for each drug triad consisting of an SMR base-pair (i.e., concomitant use of an SMR with another medication), and a co-dispensed medication (i.e., candidate interacting precipitant) taken during ongoing use of the base-pair. We included patients aged >= 16 years with an injury occurring during base-pair-exposed observation time. We used conditional Poisson regression to calculate adjusted rate ratios (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for injury with each SMR base-pair + candidate interacting precipitant (i.e., triad) versus the SMR-containing base-pair alone. Results Among 58 478 triads, 29 were significantly positively associated with injury; confounder-adjusted RRs ranged from 1.39 (95% CI = 1.01-1.91) for tizanidine + omeprazole with gabapentin to 2.23 (95% CI = 1.02-4.87) for tizanidine + diclofenac with alprazolam. Most identified 3DI signals are new and have not been formally investigated. Conclusion We identified 29 SMR 3DI signals associated with increased rates of injury. Future aetiologic studies should confirm or refute these SMR 3DI signals.

Automated summary

This study identifies skeletal muscle relaxant (SMR) drug-drug-drug interaction (3DI) signals associated with increased rates of unintentional traumatic injury. The findings suggest the need for further research on the effects of SMR drugs.