PDR (Physicians' Desk Reference)

The Physicians’ Desk Reference (PDR) is a compendium of information about prescription drugs that have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and is published annually. American pharmaceutical manufacturers, such as Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, provide the annual financing and information for the manual, which has been used by physicians, pharmacists and consumers for the past 60 years.

The PDR is updated each year with the newly approved drugs from the previous year. For example, the 2011 edition of the PDR will contain all the new prescription drug information for medications approved in 2010. There are several versions of the Physician’s Desk Reference, including PDR for Nonprescription Drugs, Dietary Supplements and Herbs and PDR Drug Guide for Mental Health Professionals.

While widely available to consumers in libraries and bookstores, the PDR is also available on CD-ROM and as an online database to subscribers.

What is Included in the Physician’s Desk Reference?

• Indexing by manufacturers
• Indexing of products, by their trademarked and generic names
• Indexing by category, or the type of product, such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications
• Drug pricing and packaging information for pharmacists
• Color photos of each prescription medication
• Alphabetic product information for over 4,000 drugs, including suggested dosages, functions and actions, warnings and side effects, as well as possible interactions with food, alcohol, and other drugs. Also listed are the factors that increase the risk of taking a particular drug, as well as associated clinical findings.

Criticisms

The Physician’s Desk Reference has been criticized for the apparent conflict of interest between the pharmaceutical manufacturers that fund and publish the text, in addition to listing their products within its pages. Furthermore, the PDR does not implement the medical editorial review process, in which a group of scientific peers review and edit scientific literature before it is published.