5/07/02
Micromedex, pt. 3: Alternative Medicine

This is the third email in a series describing Micromedex, a collection of powerful resources for drug, toxicology, alternative medicine, and acute patient care information. The Health Sciences Library offers access to Micromedex on all public computers. Micromedex is also available through the TMC Intranet. In this message, we will focus on alternative medicine information. Examples of the questions answered by the Micromedex collection of databases include (with the name of the Micromedex resource that answers the question in bold):

· Your patient is taking Slippery Elm Bark. What is Slippery Elm Bark? You did a Medline search and did not find anything.
Look in AltMedDex to find a monograph detailing the dosing, pharmacokinetics, and cautions.

· Your patient is taking St. John’s Wort and oral contraceptives. Does St. John’s Wort alter the effectiveness of oral contraceptives?
According to the AltMed-REAX(TM) for the Professional: “taking St. John's Wort may interfere with the metabolism of combination oral contraceptives resulting in reduced drug concentrations and increasing breakthrough bleeding, potentially increasing the risk for loss of contraception and unplanned pregnancy.”

Thanks to Susan Miller, PharmD for her assistance in developing this communication.