Question

Epidemiology

Scenario: Substance A has an associated increased health risk of 12% and the increased risk associated with substance B is 18%. When studied together, the increased risk associated with being exposed to both substance A in conjunction with substance B is 60%.

Question:   Is the health risk associated with this combination of substances synergistic? Describe in 10-15 sentence(i.e., Does it demonstrate synergy?)

Answer 1

Yes. The given situation demonstrates synergy or say it produces a Synergistic effect.

Synergistic effect - This is an effect produced whhen two or more substances used together and the produced effect is greater than the sum of individual effects produced.

From the given information, increased health risk with substance A is 12% and with substance B is 18%. Sum of the individual increased health risk percentage is 30%. But the increased health risk associated on exposing to both substances A and B is 60%. On combination, the risk has increased and its greater than the sum of individual increased health risk percentages (i.e., 60% > 30%).

So, the given situation absolutely demonstrates synergy. Synergistic effect in general can be beneficial if the therapeutic activity is magnified. And negative synergistic effect is produced when it magnifies side effects on combination or produces increased health risk.

In the given scenario, the sibstances A and B are to be contraindicated i.e., both A and B should not be given in combination.