Martindale: The complete drug reference

Martindale: The complete drug reference is a pharmacopoeia listing some 6,000 drugs and medicines throughout the world, including details of 128,000 proprietary preparations. It also includes 667 disease treatment reviews. It was first published in 1883 under the title Martindale: The Extra Pharmacopoeia. Martindale contains information on drugs in clinical use worldwide, as well as selected investigational and veterinary drugs, herbal and complementary medicines, pharmaceutical excipients, vitamins and nutritional agents, vaccines, radiopharmaceuticals, contrast media and diagnostic agents, medicinal gases, drugs of abuse and recreational drugs, toxic substances, disinfectants, and pesticides.

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International usefulness

It provides a useful source of information for patients arriving from abroad to identify their existing medication. This may reveal that a currently taken proprietary preparation is available under another brand name. Alternatively if the drug is not available, the class of agent can be determined allowing a doctor to determine which alternative equivalent drugs can be substituted. Monographs include Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) and Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification System (ATC) numbers to help readers refer to other information systems.

Arrangement

Martindale is arranged into three main parts followed by two extensive indexes:

• Part 1: Monographs on drugs and ancillary substances, listing 4,600 monographs arranged in 53 chapters with the corresponding disease treatment reviews. Monographs summarise the nomenclature, properties, and actions of each substance.
• Part 2: Supplementary drugs and other substances - some 980 monographs on new drugs, those not easily classified, herbals, and drugs no longer clinically used but still of interest. Monographs of some toxic substances are also included.
• Part 3: Preparations - including 128,000 items from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, and Venezuela.
• Directory of Manufacturers listing some 11,000 entries.
• General index: including approved names, synonyms and chemical names.

Digital versions include an additional 1,000 drug monographs, 20,000 preparation names, and 2,000 manufacturers.

References

• (2007) in Sean C. Sweetman: Martindale: The complete drug reference, 35th edition, London: Pharmaceutical Press. ISBN 085369687X
  ISBN 9780853696872.