Stockley's Drug Interactions. 9th ed and Stockley's Drug Interactions 2010 Pocket Companion

Abstract

The ninth edition of Stockley's Drug Interactions, in thirty-eight chapters, with a comprehensive index and abbreviations key, continues to build on the editorial team's extensive experience analyzing the literature on drug interactions. The beauty of this work is that it addresses the needs of busy doctors, pharmacists, nurses, and other health care professionals by including a short summary of the interaction. The advice on managing the interaction is discussed separately from the detailed clinical evidence and mechanism information. Stockley's Drug Interactions remains the world's most comprehensive and authoritative reference book on drug interactions. This work contains detailed yet concise information and covers interactions between therapeutic drugs, proprietary medicines, herbal medicines, foods, drinks, pesticides, and drugs of abuse. Containing more than 3,400 entries, this fully referenced tome is based on published sources, provides comprehensive details of the clinical evidence for the interactions under discussion, assesses their clinical importance, and gives clear guidance on how to manage the interaction in practice. This 9th edition includes a wealth of new information: more than 300 new entries; all entries fully revised and revalidated, making them totally up to date; and three new chapters on the interaction of thyroid hormones, urological drugs, nutritional agents, supplements, vitamins, and new drugs launched in the last 2 years, including drugs such as fesoterodine, several monoclonal antibodies, new antidiabetics such as sitagliptin, new antineoplastic such as dasatinib, and new immune suppressants such as temsirolimus. Also, updated information on season flu vaccines and antivirals is newly included, plus all available information on possible interactions with concurrent medication. It is also worth mentioning that this edition includes increased commentary on the involvement of new mechanisms in drug interactions, such as drug transporter proteins, and other genetic factors that affect the ability of individuals to metabolize medicines. As in previous editions, the editors do not include a symbol to rate the severity of an interaction, because it is not always possible to simply assign one rating and one symbol to the discussion of a group of drugs and their risks. Also, each patient is unique and different. Thus, the editors discuss these various risks and differences, where applicable, and allow readers to make the decision on the severity of the interaction with full knowledge of a particular patient. On the other hand, the editors include ratings symbols in other products such as Stockley's Drug Interactions Pocket Companion, where the interaction information is designed to be abridged and summarized in a few lines and where the symbol presents a worst case scenario. In other words, each entry has been assigned a rating symbol to offer guidance to users on the clinical significance of the interaction. These ratings are arrived at using three separate categories: action, severity, and evidence. Action describes whether or not any action needs to be taken to accommodate the interaction. This category ranges from “avoid” to “no action needed.” Severity describes the likely effect of an unmanaged interaction on the patient. This category ranges from “severe” to “nothing expected.” Evidence describes the weight of evidence behind the interaction. This category ranges from “extensive” to “theoretical.” This pocket companion follows the familiar format of the ninth edition and is conveniently sized to fit in one's pocket. Why consult both the wrist-challenging ninth edition tome and the handy pocket edition? Doctors, pharmacists, nurses, and other health care professionals can find ready answers to questions facing them on a day-to-day basis. Answers to such questions could save a life. Are the drugs in question known to interact or is the interaction only theoretical and speculative? If the drugs do interact, how seriously? Are all patients affected or only a few? Is it best to avoid these two drugs altogether or can the interaction be accommodated in some way? What alternative and safer drugs can be used instead? Purchasing the ninth edition and the Pocket Companion, in the Americas only, includes one-year access to Stockley's Online at MedicinesComplete for a grand total of $250.00 and is sometimes referred to as Stockley's Solution. Purchased separately, Pharmaceutical Press charges $819.00. Stockley's Drug Interactions is a tried and trusted tool of value in any academic health sciences library, hospital library, pharmacy, and physician's office, while the pocket companion is worth its weight in gold away from the book shelf.