'Drug interactions' (5th ed), by Ivan H. Stockley. Pp xii+948. Price £69. London: Pharmaceutical Press, 1999. ISBN 0 85369 424 9.
This book is the fifth edition of a well-known title, published three years after its previous edition. The objective of the author is to present a comprehensive and critical summary of the available data on drug interactions. Potential users of the book who might read this review will probably be in the market for a reference source to back up more readily available sources of information on drug interactions, such as the British National Formulary, manufacturers' summaries of product characteristics or computer-based warning systems. It is no surprise to find that Ivan Stockley has produced a book that will serve those needs well.
The key strength of the book is that, for each interaction, the author gives a clear summary of the available evidence and adds comments on the practical steps to take in managing a patient for whom potentially interacting medicines have been prescribed. The weight given to the evidence for an individual reaction varies according to its origin and its quality: hence, obscure, anecdotal case reports are given less importance than controlled clinical studies. While this is in keeping with an evidence-based approach, the author deliberately avoids any coding system for the quality of these pieces of evidence or for the overall weight of any subsequent recommendation. Readers will no doubt have their own views on the relative merits of those approaches. That said, the advice that the book offers is, first and foremost, practical and, in that context, is valuable to practising pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and students.
At £69, the book may not find its way into every pharmacy, but it will continue to be useful in medicines information departments and undergraduate departments of pharmacy.
Reviewer - Trevor Beswick is director of South and West drug information and training, at Bristol Royal infirmary, and regional pharmaceutical adviser for NHSE South West