OVERALL RATING Good
STRENGTHS Thoroughly researched, evidence-based, and fully referenced; rationally organized, well-established products
WEAKNESSES Not Canadianized; the utility and shelf-life of hard-copy drug interaction references quickly lose their value in the face of constantly updated electronic resources
AUDIENCE Health professionals who prescribe and evaluate pharmacotherapy
The goal of these reference books is to provide practitioners with ready access to clinically relevant, evidence-based information on proprietary drug interactions, as well as interactions between drugs and herbal products, dietary constituents, or environmental agents. The full-text eighth edition provides more than 3100 detailed, evidence-based, and clinically relevant monographs about drug interactions. The pocket companion is a conveniently sized quick reference, pared down to about 1500 monographs by omitting interactions involving anesthetics, specialist use of multidrug antivirals, and antineoplastic regimens. Chapter 1 of the full-text version provides a very good introductory review on the general topic of drug interactions. Eight editions have been printed since the book was first published in 1981; these print resources clearly have a limited shelf-life, likely due to competitively priced subscriptions to more integrated and regularly updated reference materials and other electronic pocket devices.
An interactive CD-ROM of this eighth edition and a personal digital assistant version of the pocket companion are available. MedicinesComplete provides on-line access to Stockley’s Drug Interactions and Stockley’s Interaction Alerts (http://medicinescomplete.com/mc). Lexi - Compprovides a Canadianized alternative to Stockley’s on-line resources. It analyzes potential interactions among a patient’s list of drugs (regardless of mixing trade names with generic names) to generate similar information about the mechanism, nature and frequency, and seriousness of the drug interaction, and includes suggestions for how to accommodate those interactions using alternative, safer drug choices.