Clinician's Handbook of Prescription Drugs

I would like to briefly explain our purpose in authoring this prescription manual. Every year, there are 7,000-10,000 deaths reported in the United States due to prescription errors. There are a number of reasons why the administration of medications has become so complex. These include polypharmacy (patients on many medications at the same time), the rapid volume and fast pace of today's clinical practices, the dizzying array of new and complicated drugs on the market and the loss of the "family pharmacist" that knows patients and their medications personally. Our main objective in creating the book is to provide the most essential information on commonly prescribed drugs in an easy to use, pocket sized(large pocket!)edition. This book is the only one of it's kind written by experts in pharmacology and clinical practice. I am an MD in the Department of Medicine at the University of Chicago and have a busy clinical practice and also teach and do clinical research. My father, Dr. Seymour Ehrenpreis, is a PhD in Biochemistry and Pharmacology, who not only adds a basic scientist's knowledge to the information provided but has also taught thousands of medical students the art of drug prescription. Our Advisory Board consists of 17 clinicians ranging from Professors of Medicine in a variety of specialties from several medical schools, a physician's assistant with the US Army, a microbiologist and a clinical psychologist. These individuals have all worked carefully to glean the most important and essential information needed to safely and properly prescribe about 500 drugs including over 900 trade names from a clinician's prospective. Areas covered for each entry include drug name,brand names,mechanism of action,susceptible organisms(for antibiotics,doses and indications,adjustment of dose in liver and kidney diseases,the elderly and children,timing with meals,use during pregnancy and lactation (with recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics when available),contraindications, warnings and precautions,very detailed advice to patients for avoiding adverse reactions and other drug related problems,common and serious side effects,clinically important drug interactions, parameters for the clinicians to monitor to avoid complications and finally, editorial comments. The editorial comments are "pearls of wisdom" that the authors or our Advisory panel have added to assist the prescriber. Aside from the aforementioned advantages of this book,a number of drugs which are either not included in or are only briefly mentioned in the PDR 2001 edition are described in detail in our book. Many of these drugs, such as IV nitroglycerine,dopamine,and methylprednisolone to name just a few, are commonly prescribed. Our book provides a means of looking these up and making sure that they are prescibed correctly. Eli D Ehrenpreis MD Chicago, Illinois

Excellent up-to-date presciption drug reference book...includes recommended dosages and other info not found in the other handbooks I've used as well as all the info (such as drug interactions) that is found in the others ... JPV