Alternative Therapies References

Today's physicians are often faced with patients taking multiple "natural" supplements, and the need for information to make educated decisions about their effects or interactions with other drugs. DrDrugs includes extensive information about natural product/alternative medicines, while neither LexiDrugs nor ePocrates Rx have significant information on these preparations.

The most authoritative standalone reference in this category is Lexi Natural Products, from Lexi-Comp (who also produce LexiDrugs Platinum, www.lexi.com ). This software covers over 175 of the most commonly used natural products in 6 different categories - herbs, vitamins, minerals, nutraceuticals, 'glandular nutraceuticals', and amino acids. Up to 11 key fields of information are provided, including natural product category, dosage and standardization, reported uses, pharmacology, general warnings, theoretical interactions and references (mostly pre-1999 in the present version). Information on possible mechanisms of action is generally good. Lexi Natural Products takes up 300KB, supports expansion cards, and is available for PocketPC.

As a slightly less expensive alternative, ePocrates have worked an alternative medicine reference into their commercial Rx Pro product ( www.epocrates.com ), including over 400 alternative medicine monographs and a built-in interactions checker. The information is from the Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database ( www.naturaldatabase.com ), which promotes itself as the "gold standard for evidence-based, clinical information on natural medicines." We have not reviewed this title, and therefore can't comment on the accuracy of their claim.

If it is only drug interactions with natural products that you are interested in, rather than a detailed reference, be aware that LexiInteract (a drug interaction checker from Lexi-Comp designed to be used in concert with LexiDrugs Platinum) includes a wide variety of the most common natural products, as well as over-the-counter products and foods.

The Tarascon Pharmacopaeia also contains a fully integrated "Herbal & Alternative Therapy" section.