AHFS Drug Information monographs are written principally on single-drug entities; information on various trademarked preparations and brands of a drug is contained in a single monograph. Drug combinations are described in the monographs on the principal ingredients or, rarely, appear as separate monographs (e.g., Co-trimoxazole 8:12.20) when the combinations are considered important because of therapeutic rationale and/or frequency of use. There also are general statements on groups of drugs (e.g., Salicylates 28:08.04.24) whose activities and uses permit their discussion as a class. Information on older and prototype drugs is another feature of AHFS Drug Information.
Drug monographs are arranged by the widely recognized and used AHFS Pharmacologic-Therapeutic Classification . This arrangement permits easy review of information on a group of drugs with similar activities and uses and allows the reader to determine quickly the similarities and differences among drugs within a group.
A table of contents precedes each major class of drugs (e.g., 8:00 Anti-infectives) in the book. The table of contents lists each drug monograph included in that major class according to the specific subclass (e.g., Cephalosporins 8:12.06). Within each subclass, monographs are arranged alphabetically by nonproprietary (generic) name and are preceded by the general statement, when present, for that subclass. The names of the drugs are the United States Adopted Names (USAN) and other names for drugs as described in USAN and the USP Dictionary of Drug Names.
Because of the arrangement of the book, information on a particular drug can be located by several methods. Information can be located via the search by using any of the following terms:
All AHFS Pharmacologic-Therapeutic classes of drugs (e.g., cephalosporins) are included in AHFS Drug Information; therefore, a specific class of drugs can be located using the search facility. If you are already familiar with the AHFS Pharmacologic-Therapeutic Classification, you occasionally may find that simply browsing the table of contents to the appropriate section is the easiest method for locating information. Whatever method best suits your needs, information can be located quickly and easily. Synonyms for drug classes (e.g., opioids for opiate agonists) and other cross-references for classes of drugs (e.g., ACE inhibitors) also are included.