Drug interactions are where pharmacology stops being academic. They’re favorites of board writers because they test integrated reasoning, and they’re a daily safety concern because a dangerous combination rarely announces itself. A handful come up over and over, on exams and in practice alike:
- Serotonergic combinations — SSRIs/SNRIs stacked with tramadol, triptans, linezolid, or each other, and the serotonin syndrome that can follow.
- Warfarin’s long list — antibiotics, antifungals, amiodarone, and NSAIDs that swing the INR or add bleeding risk.
- QT prolongers — the additive risk when two or more (certain antiarrhythmics, macrolides, antipsychotics, ondansetron) are combined.
- CYP interactions — inhibitors and inducers that raise or crater the levels of statins, immunosuppressants, and more.
- Potassium traps — ACE inhibitors, ARBs, spironolactone, and potassium supplements converging toward hyperkalemia.
- NSAID pitfalls — blunting antihypertensives and compounding renal and bleeding risk.
What makes these worth deliberate review is that they’re pattern-based: once you recognize the mechanism, you catch the whole family, not just the one example a question happens to use. The Pharmacology Review Course teaches them that way — 12.5 hours of AAPA Category 1 CME, organized so the interactions connect to the classes you’re already reviewing, with explanations that build the pattern rather than asking you to memorize a list. It’s $499.99 for 30 months, with the optional $100–$1,500 Amazon or Apple gift-card add-on.