Drug Information

While your best resource for patient opinion about drug performance is AskaPatient.com, here are the sites to look at for other kinds of information about prescription drugs. The sites reviewed were chosen for their quality of information and ease of use. To suggest another site, contact us.

Basic Drug Reference Sources

MedlinePlus Drug Information
This is the best site for finding much of what you might need to know about a drug, especially if you don't have the patient insert. Provides information on why medicine is prescribed, how it should be used, special precautions, special dietary instructions, what to do if you miss a dose, side effects, storage conditions, brand names, and more. Information provided by resources from the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists and United States Pharmacopoeia (USP). Also includes directory of natural and dietary supplements and herbal medicines.

Medication Guides for Common Drugs
Medication Guides are paper handouts that come with many prescription medicines. The guides address issues that are specific to particular drugs and drug classes, and they contain FDA-approved information that can help patients avoid serious adverse events. 

Drugs@FDA
This site contains details about a drug's application history, and in many cases has links to the drug's official LABEL information from the manufacturer. It contains prescription and over-the-counter drugs. It will also tell you if a drug has been discontinued from the market within the last five years. For drugs withdrawn for safety reasons more than 5 years ago, you won't find any record of it in the drug database at the FDA. .

 

Drug Interactions with other Drugs, Foods, and Herbal Medicines

Drug Interactions Checker from Drugs.com

Natural Medicines Comprehensive DatabaseThis checker will find interactions between DRUGS and NATURAL MEDICINES including each ingredient of brand name products. It will NOT find drug-drug interactionsProvides data to the National Library of Medicine. Searching directly from this site allows a variety of searches, including disease/medical conditions search, advanced search, drug/natural medicine interactions. More information is available by subscription. A printed version of the directory is available for $92.

Drug News & Articles

Food & Drug Administration (patent, ingredient, approval date information)
Go to the source to keep current on changes to drug labeling due to newly discovered side effects, and other important findings. Read up on new FDA standards and requirements. Check for medical product and safety recalls. Also see the FDA's
Buying Prescription Medicine Online: FDA's Consumer Safety Guide

Pharmaceutical & Health Care News Highlights at Ask a Patient. Breaking healthcare and drug news from medical journals and popular health magazines.

FDA Drug Safety Alerts and News Summary at Ask a Patient. Updated daily. Is your drug on the list? Links to FDA alerts also available from each drug rating page.

Drug Costs

Kiplinger's Medicare Prescription Costs Calculator. Estimate your medicare prescription drug savings. What will your out of pocket expenses be under the new medicare drug insurance plan?

Drug Price lookup
Pharmacychecker.com   
Price and Product Comparison Service: Rxaminer.com

Assistance with Drug and Health Care Costs
Needymeds.org
NeedyMeds is a resource for advocates and others who need assistance. Provides information, coupons, on programs for free or low cost prescriptions from manufacturers and other sources. Look up information by drug name and also by disease name. This is a 501c3 organization. Has information on more than 500 assistance programs. Includes complete contact information, including phone numbers, for each company program. For common questions about Prescription drug cards, see their frequently asked questions list.

Partnership for Prescription Assistance
Sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry, this organization maintains a call center and the web site provides information on programs for free or low cost prescriptions for low income patients.

Comprehensive List of Prescription Drug Discount Cards is provided by the Partnership for Prescription Assistance:
http://www.pparx.org/en/prescription_assistance_programs/discount_cards

For any drug overdose, call your local poison control center at 1-800-222-1222.