The PDR Family Guide to Prescription Drugs, 9th Edition: America's Leading Drug Guide for Over 50 Years (Paperback)

~ Inc. Medical Economics Company (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The Physicians' Desk Reference® (PDR) has been rewritten in language the average mortal can understand."        
--Associated Press

"Brief, lucid entries on major drugs and their side effects."        
--Wall Street Journal -- Review --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"The Physicians' Desk Reference® (PDR) has been rewritten in language the average mortal can understand."        
--Associated Press

"Brief, lucid entries on major drugs and their side effects."        
--Wall Street Journal --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 960 pages
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press; 9 Sub edition (October 22, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0609809504
• ISBN-13: 978-0609809501
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 7.3 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #299,480 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars From Abacavir to Zyrtec..., March 31, 2003

By	Soozie4Him (Chicago suburbs) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

You might think you can find everything you need to know about prescription drugs on the internet. However, I've found that certain sites give too much info (chemical structure of the medication), or too little (no warnings about side effects, etc). This book is a great reference for prescription drugs of all kinds. I just wish it covered over-the-counter drugs.

A full-color Drug Identification Guide starts out this book. Then most of the book is an alphabetical list of prescription drugs. I didn't have any trouble finding the ones I was looking for. From the coumadin my mother-in-law is on, to the protonix my mom is on, to the Celebrex I take for osteoarthritis to the Allegra my daughter takes for her allergies, it's all here.

One of the features I like is that there is a range of dosages. I've seen books that have NO dosages at all. Of course, this has to be determined by the doctor for each individual patient, but it's nice to have an idea of what the range is.

After the section with all the drugs, there are articles on various health problems. While that might be helpful, what I really appreciated was the 13-page "Disease and Disorder Index". The diseases are in alphabetical order, then the drugs commonly used to treat that problem are listed below, with the page numbers where you can find more information. With so many medications have similar names - for instance, Celebrex for arthritis and Celexa for depression, it's great to have a quick and easy way to find out what drugs are prescribed for what conditions.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent reference, but ..., September 28, 2005

By	fairview (Michigan) - See all my reviews

This book is basically the same as The PDR Pocket Guide to Prescription Drugs, except in a different format. The physical dimensions of this book is larger, not as many pages, and the print is somewhat larger. Information on drugs is taken from the same source (Physicans Desk Reference). There are some brief chapters in the back of this book on common medical problems. This edition was published in 2002 (so it was based on the 2001 PDR). I would suggest the PDR Pocket Guide because it is more recent and there is a new edition of the Guide due out soon. Nonetheless this is an excellent reference book to have in your home. For some people the format and size of the book and additional chapters may make this a good choice. It is just a little dated.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good but not enough, October 4, 2006

By	Edilberto Torres Santos (PR) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

With big letter, easy to understand language (most of the time), sounds a good alternative than to buy the original PDR for medics (cheaper too). But lacks a lot of new medicines that had been inroduce to the market by the aggressive style of the pharmaceuticals. You can find basic and most common prescriptions drugs but today (2006), there are a lot more and probably, the next one your doctor recommends you.