Interactions between recreational drugs and antiretroviral agents. Ann Pharmacother 2002

The advent of potent new therapies for HIV has seem-ingly turned the tide in the battle against this disease. Specifically, combinations of antiretroviral drugs that in-clude a member of the protease inhibitor (PI) or nonnucle-oside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) family offer new hope that the progression of the disease and death can be delayed.1-3 However, the addition of combination thera-pies to already complex medication regimens dramatically increases the likelihood of drug interactions.4-7 PIs and NNRTIs, in particular, have a propensity for causing drug interactions as a result of their ability to either inhibit or in-duce the cytochrome P450 (CYP450) enzyme system.8-13 The effects of medications commonly used by patients with HIV/AIDS on the body’s various drug-metabolizing pathways are summarized in Table 1.8-1