Drug Interaction Database

MedicineNet has a new drug interaction tool on its Website at http://www.medicinenet.com/Script/Main/hp.asp. (That's the main page; the drug interaction page appears as a popup from a link on the page's left side.) The tool provides both drug/food and drug/drug reactions.

After you click the Drug Interaction Tool link, a window will appear asking you to agree to a non-liability statement. If you click on "I Agree" and your firewall has turned your referrals off, you'll get a big ugly ERROR MESSAGE!

Ahem. After tweaking the settings, trying three browsers, and finally temporarily disabling the firewall, I got in. The tools main page is a a query box for a product -- a prescription drug, an over-the-counter drug or a vitamin/herbal supplement. I entered "aspirin" and received product names containing aspirin (St. Joseph), not containing aspirin (Aspirin Free Excedrin) and various drug combinations including aspirin. The next option is to select interactions to be included in the report, such as caffeine, alcohol, food or grapefruit juice. After you've selected the ones you want (they're all checked by default) you'll get a printable report (not all drugs have interactions with the four options given.) If you want to see a drug/drug interaction report that's not listed in the initial options, you'll need to select the "Add Another Medication" option at the bottom of the screen.

MedicineNet is marginally tolerant of spelling mistakes -- searching for seudoephedrine found pseudoephedrine, but searching for prozack did not find Prozac.

More information about DIT and answers to FAQs is available by clicking on the New link MedicineNet's main-center column. Additional items of interest on the site include Current Health News, Health Highlights, Doctors' Views and Featured Conditions. Recent Updates and Health Facts are included as well as additional sources for various conditions.

Posted to Science-Medicine-Drugs