Rating: 
Summary: Warning CD-ROM may ?expire? after 1 year.
Review: I bought the 2002 version of the PDR for $99+ at end of 2001. It was more expensive than the book version but, seemed more convenient. It was advertised by the publisher as containing the entire text of the paper version + more (PDR for non-prescription drugs etc.) I used it occasionally as I'm not a physician. It seemed fine. Early in 2003 I noticed it had NO listing for an important drug. I was able to find this drug in my old 1999 paper book version. I called & the customer service person told me that the CD-ROM version does NOT have as many drugs listed as the paper version. She said if I like I can exchange the CD-ROM for the 2002 book (right, the book cost about $25 less at the time). I declined but, thought I would stick with the paper book next time I updated. Well Just last week I went to look something up & it would not open. I called & was told that the program EXPIRED after 1 year! I paid for it & now cannot use it. I'm annoyed.
Amazon now offers the 2004 book with a coupon for a free CD-ROM. I plan to buy this soon & will only use PDR CDROMS if they are free. I'll stick with the book which they cannot repo!
Rating:
Summary: Warning CD-ROM may ¿expire¿ after 1 year.
Review: I bought the 2002 version of the PDR for $99+ at end of 2001. It was more expensive than the book version but, seemed more convenient. It was advertised by the publisher as containing the entire text of the paper version + more (PDR for non-prescription drugs etc.) I used it occasionally as I'm not a physician. It seemed fine. Early in 2003 I noticed it had NO listing for an important drug. I was able to find this drug in my old 1999 paper book version. I called & the customer service person told me that the CD-ROM version does NOT have as many drugs listed as the paper version. She said if I like I can exchange the CD-ROM for the 2002 book (right, the book cost about $25 less at the time). I declined but, thought I would stick with the paper book next time I updated. Well Just last week I went to look something up & it would not open. I called & was told that the program EXPIRED after 1 year! I paid for it & now cannot use it. I'm annoyed.
Amazon now offers the 2004 book with a coupon for a free CD-ROM. I plan to buy this soon & will only use PDR CDROMS if they are free. I'll stick with the book which they cannot repo!
Rating: 
Summary: PDR and CD
Review: If you folks who love Microsoft products so much are mad because the CD ROM on the PDR expires in a year. What a joke ALL of your software from Microsoft is going to do this. Yes thats right, each year you will pay or your program will not play. This starts at the Operating System and any software you bought and is owned by Microsoft will stop working unless each year you pay a fee to Microsoft, that's what monoply suit was about.
The PDR is a very important book to any one who is ill and needs information on the drug. Remember that the drug companies must pay to have their drug listed, so some old ones may not be listed and the spin on the drugs effects is well lets say no bad things are really going to be listed other then what the FDA requires. So while an excellent reference
look a little deeper fo drug effects and real person use
I sure love my Mac, I can do everything a MS user can do and more, except I pay once. Microsoft a monoply, naaaa
Geoff
Rating: 
Summary: Kind of like paying for one volume of the LA phone book...
Review: The PDR is basically a bloated collection of current-patent drug inserts printed on cheap newsprint. It weighs a ton, and contains virtually no information that one can't download from the relevant drug company's website for free.If you are a doctor, you probably get this book for free. That's about what it's worth, considering that its scope is limited to expensive non-generic drugs. If you have fifty bucks to spend on a drug reference, get something complete and useable like the "Physician's Drug Handbook." If you want full prescribing info for a current drug, you can get it off the internet without worrying about out-of-date info or expired CD's.
Rating:
Summary: Kind of like paying for one volume of the LA phone book...
Review: The PDR is basically a bloated collection of current-patent drug inserts printed on cheap newsprint. It weighs a ton, and contains virtually no information that one can't download from the relevant drug company's website for free. If you are a doctor, you probably get this book for free. That's about what it's worth, considering that its scope is limited to expensive non-generic drugs. If you have fifty bucks to spend on a drug reference, get something complete and useable like the "Physician's Drug Handbook." If you want full prescribing info for a current drug, you can get it off the internet without worrying about out-of-date info or expired CD's.
Rating:
Summary: Indispensable but continues to be highly flawed
Review: The PDR is indispensable -- I'd be lost without it -- but it's highly flawed, and I can't believe that after all these years, they can't figure it out and do a better job. I don't think it would be that hard.
Some aspects of the format are problematic. It's hard to find certain things, and often you won't see what you're looking for even if you land on the right paragraph. Some examples:
(1) For some reason, side effects are divided between two or more different sections of each article. I'm sure there's some logic to this, but it certainly isn't evident, and it makes it much harder to find out what we want to know.
(2) Some important sections -- for example, "Drug Interactions" -- are hard to find, no matter how experienced you are with the PDR. One solution would be to have boldface headings for such sections.
(3) How often have you wanted to find "half-lives" of a medication and perhaps its metabolites, and how often have you actually found them? They are there, but they're buried. Something as important as this should certainly be highlighted, perhaps in tabular form.
The sad fact is that unless you're quite persistent, you often won't find a lot of what you're looking for when you open the PDR, even though it's there.
Some other flaws are probably unavoidable. For example, despite the fact that seemingly anything and everything is mentioned as a possible side effect for every medication, common side effects sometimes are not mentioned at all. Also, oftentimes some of the major uses for a given medication are not mentioned. These problems aren't the fault of the publisher. The first reflects failures of the medical literature in general -- if a side effect isn't mentioned prominently in the literature, it might not find its way into the PDR. The second reflects the fact that many correct usages of medications are not officially approved.
Some caveats for consumers: The listed dosage ranges for any given medication are sometimes too limited. Lower or higher dosages may be right for some people. And also, do beware of those endless lists of possible side effects. Remember that these aren't necessarily things that will happen; they only MIGHT happen. (Many of them rarely if ever happen, at least in terms of their being caused by the medications.) And sometimes the lists fail to include things that DO happen! If you are convinced that a medication has done something to you and it's not mentioned in the PDR, you still could very well be right. But, don't assume that something IS happening just because it IS mentioned on that endless list!
It's hard to express a simple overall assessment of the PDR. The book is an important reference, but it's hard to understand that the publisher hasn't figured out how to do a better job. Maybe they'll read this page and finally do it.
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Rating: 
Summary: Standard
Review: There are a lot of drug reference books. Many, if not most, are quite good. It depends more on how you like your information organized than anything else. The PDR is not designed to be carried in your pocket, it designed to be...well, exhaustive and filled with virtually all the data about the given drug. But regardless of what you think about the PDR, one thing is certain: The PDR has become a gold standard among practioners and is relied upon heavily by physicians.
Rating:
Summary: A highly recommended pick for medical library holdings
Review: This Thomson Healthcare edition of Physicians' Desk Reference 2004 is a specifically designed professional reference for physicians and the medical community, and is updated yearly. Private practice, hospital, pharmacy, clinic, medical training centers and academic health libraries and health reference collections will find it an indispensable reference. This 58th edition lists all pharmaceutical manufacturers with address, phones and emergency contacts, includes products by category, and provides a diagnostic product information section which includes dosing instructions in Spanish, special notations on controlled substances, and FDA contacts. The extensive reference does require an in-depth knowledge of medicine for best access, making it a highly recommended pick for medical library holdings who will consider it a standard acquisition; but plenty of public and college-level libraries will find their patrons referring to it as well. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: PDR and CD
Review: Very thorough. And folks, it's called a liscense agreement. Take a look at digital rights management and other electronic content. 365 days after you load Encarta (by MSFT), you have to buy the new edition to continue receiving updates. It's way of the new world in the digital environment.
Rating:
Summary: If you need information on RX's, this is the best around.
Review: Very thorough. And folks, it's called a liscense agreement. Take a look at digital rights management and other electronic content. 365 days after you load Encarta (by MSFT), you have to buy the new edition to continue receiving updates. It's way of the new world in the digital environment.
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