Customer Reviews

The PDR Pocket Guide to Prescription Drugs: Sixth Edition (Physicians' Desk Reference Pocket Guide to Prescription Drugs)

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"This must be a mistake! How could his drug costs rise from $150 per month to $1101 in just three weeks?" My hand shook while I read the pharmacy bill.

The bill was accurate. In only three weeks at an Alzheimer's care unit, my father's drug expenses had soared an incredible 734%. And, the way I saw it, his quality of life had decreased about the same percentage. Walking and talking when he entered, he now spent his days in a wheelchair, unable to walk and drugged, in a constant stupor.

"I've got to do something." The thought repeated over and over in my head. "How can this be?" Then a quick trip to the grocery brought the help I needed. It came in the form of a thick paperback book, The PDR Pocket Guide to Prescription Drugs.

The PDR Pocket Guide provides tons of information for all prescription drugs currently on the market. Information includes:

a. generic equivalents,
b. why the drug is prescribed,
c. how it should be taken,
d. when it should not be taken,
e. side effects and special warning, and
f. possible interactions with other drugs and food.

The PDR is available through Amazon.com, or you may find a copy like I did at your local grocery or bookstore. Jam-packed with almost 1700 pages of information, this paperback is a surprisingly affordable $6.99.

Using the pharmacy's bill as a list of medications, I read the PDR report for each drug my father was using. What I found astonished me.

Two of fifteen drugs prescribed were being used "off-label." One was specifically contraindicated for use with Alzheimer's patients. Two others were from drug families that I had previously pointed out in my father's list of allergic reactions.

Without this "pocket" guide, I'd never have understood what was happening to my father.

Get one today. Use it. It could save the life of someone you love dearly.

Phyllis Staff, Ph.D.
author, "How to Find Great Senior Housing"
and
"128 Ways to Prevent Alzheimer's and Other Dementias"

If you or your family is taking prescription drugs this is an essential reference to own. Although its focus is on prescriptions drugs it also covers some non-prescription pain relivers (asperin, tyrenol, motrin, etc). The typeface is confortable to read...not too small. This is a pocket-sized book but thick. Not something to put in a back pocket or purse but easy enought to carry around and light. So inexpensive, anyone can own it. This edition is based on the 2003 Physicans Desk Reference. There will be a new edition due out in November 2005.

This reference is awesome, and the price can't be beat. It is loaded with information, and at this price it's a must have for all nurses.

This PDR is a 2003 edition. thus it's of no use to me.
Jack