Drug Interactions

Like most medications antihypertensive medications have a large number of possible drug interactions. Some of the calcium channel blockers also interact with grapefruit juice.

• Felodipine - Renedil, Plendil, Sandoz felodipine
• Nifedipine - Adalat, Adalat CC, Adalat PA, Adalat XL, Procardia, Apo-Nifed, Novo-Nifedin, Nu-Nifed
• Nimodipine - Nimotop
• Verapamil - Calan, Calan SR, Isoptin, Isoptin SR, Verelan, Verelan PM, Apo-Verap, Novo-Veramil, Nu-Verap

• Get all medications at the same pharmacy. In this way the computer system can detect all your drug interactions by having access to your medication history.
• Give your pharmacist a list of all prescription and non-prescription medications you are taking if you do go to another pharmacy.
• Do not buy non-prescription medications without first talking to your pharmacist or physician. Cold, flu, sinus, allergy and appetite suppressant medications may interact with blood pressure medications or cause blood pressure to increase.
• Keep a list of the medications you are taking in your purse or wallet so it is available for all your health care providers, i.e. specialists, dentist, physician, pharmacist, nurse, nutritionist etc.
• Take medications exactly as prescribed.
• Be sure to go for all prescribed blood work. Some antihypertensive medications can cause lithium, digoxin, carbamazepine or cyclosporine levels to rise to toxic levels. When all medications are bought from the same store, pharmacy computer systems can detect these interactions. The pharmacist can speak to the physician who may want to choose another antihypertensive medication or monitor medication levels through blood work.