Impact of multimorbidity on pharmacokinetics and adverse events
Supervisors:
Dr Jennifer Lees, School of Cardiovascular & Metabolic Health (University of Glasgow)
Prof David McAllister, School of Health & Wellbeing (University of Glasgow)
Summary:
Multimorbidity complicates dose-dependent prescribing due to drug-disease interactions, drug-drug interactions, and frequent regimen changes. The British National Formulary provides guidance on prescribing for the elderly, but there is limited evidence on how to modify treatment intensity for people with multimorbidity.
The proposed project aims to investigate the impact of multimorbidity on drug concentrations and their associations with adverse events in clinical trials. The project will focus on secondary analysis of pharmacokinetic data provided within individual participant level data (IPD) in clinical trials. Multimorbidity will be quantified within trial populations by various methods, including multimorbidity counts and patterns of multimorbidity that may impact drug metabolism or excretion (such as kidney and liver disease).
The project will provide training in epidemiology and coding, pharmacology and medication safety, data handling, reproducible research and open science. The student will have direct access to supervisors with clinical and epidemiological expertise in secondary analysis of trial IPD, and will benefit from existing collaborations with experts in clinical pharmacology, drug safety, and medication burden. The successful student will also promote public and patient involvement (PPI) throughout, including forming a dedicated PPI group composed of patients with lived experience of multimorbidity to inform detailed project design and conduct.