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Therapeutic Choices

Canadian Medical Association Journals 1996; 154: 201
Edited by Jean Gray. 782 pp. Illust. Canadian Pharmaceutical Association, Ottawa. 1995. $53.45. ISBN 0-919115-67-5
Overall rating: Excellent

Strengths: Portable, comprehensive, well organized, contains up-to-date references and suggestions for further reading, pays attention to cost of drugs

Weaknesses: No section on renal diseases, some algorithms too complex, little information on drug interactions

Audience: Physicians, especially house staff, and hospital pharmacists

Anyone knowing Dr. Jean Gray would expect a book she edited to be comprehensive, well organized and, above all, practical. They would not be disappointed. Gray, her nine associate editors and 115 contributors have packed an astounding amount of information into a small space. Ninety-seven chapters deal with such diverse topics as acute myocardial infarction and hiccoughs. Each contains some diagnostic information, goals of therapy, a management algorithm, a table of drugs of choice, their dosages, adverse effects and relative costs, and "therapeutic tips."

Just for fun, I carried the book in my lab-coat pocket for a week. Among 10 patients admitted to our general-medicine clinical teaching unit with tuberculosis, an exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, congestive heart failure, deep-vein thrombosis, refractory hypertension, noninsulin- dependent diabetes mellitus, intractable headache, acetaminophen overdose and chronic renal failure, I found information that was useful in all but the last two indications.

Each contributor is a well-known Canadian expert. Brand names as well as generic names of drugs are given. There are kidney-shaped icons beside drugs for which the dosage should be reduced if the patient has renal failure; appendices contain information on dosage adjustments in this situation.

This book could replace the Washington Manual1 in the pockets of Canadian medical residents. I recommend it highly.

Thomas W. Wilson, MD, FRCPC
Departments of Pharmacology and Medicine
University of Saskatchewan
Saskatoon, Sask.

Reference

  1. Orland MJ, Saltman RJ (eds): Manual of Medical Therapeutics, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1986
| CMAJ January 15, 1996 (vol 154, no 2) |