| FOCUS ON DIABETES AND ANTIDIABETIC DRUGS |
As part of our routine revision of Martindale the Antidiabetics chapter has undergone extensive revision. The new version should now be available to users of digital versions (depending on the vendor) and will be included in the next print edition.
Expanded and new information highlights include:
Diabetes Mellitus treatment review
- Updated taking into consideration the latest guidelines from NICE (including Management of Type 2 Diabetes, May 2009) and the American Diabetes Association (Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes, 2009), as well as documents from WHO, the International Diabetes Federation, and the International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes
- Diagnostic criteria for diabetes mellitus, impaired glucose tolerance, and impaired fasting glucose
- The developing role of HbA1C in diagnosis, current goals for therapy, and background on the changes being made to the reporting of results
- The role of newer oral antidiabetics such as meglitinides and dipeptidylpeptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors
- Insulin therapy in type 2 diabetes
- The use of oral antidiabetics during pregnancy
- Management of diabetes during surgery and critical illness
Diabetic complications
- Additional studies on the prevention of complications, particularly in type 2 diabetes.
- Restructured section on cardiovascular disease in diabetic patients.
Drug monographs
- Sulfonylurea and metformin use in children
- Insulin analogues in pregnancy
- Glycaemic control in critically ill patients (including the results of the NICE-SUGAR study and uncertainty about appropriate target glucose concentrations)
- Expanded monographs for Liraglutide, Sitagliptin Phosphate, and Vildagliptin
- New monographs for Alogliptin Benzoate and Saxagliptin
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| HOMOEOPATHIC REMEDIES |
| There has been a lot of debate around the Martindale office over whether we should include information about homoeopathic remedies in Martindale. Some people think that, since their purported mechanism of action does not have a convincing scientific foundation and since there is insufficient published clinical evidence, their inclusion is not justified. But the fact remains that homoeopathic remedies have found their way on to the shelves in many pharmacies across the world, and the Editor's decision is that they should no longer be ignored. Thus, in the Martindale tradition of providing sound guidance on identification and nomenclature, we are in the process of including information about the ingredients of the mother tincture and recording the names used in official homoeopathic sources such as the German Homoeopathic Pharmacopoeia, the Homoeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the United States, and the Homoeopathic Pharmacopoeia of India. However, we have refrained from commenting on any suggested uses.
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| LINGUISTS WANTED |
Ever needed to know what eye drops or 'sugar-free' were in Lithuanian*? Now you can find out thanks to an update to Martindale's list of Pharmaceutical Terms in Various Languages. UK-based Lithuanian pharmacist Andrius Kairys kindly volunteered to check the terms for us (thanks, Andrius!), but there are still a lot of European languages for which we'd like to add terms. If you're a pharmacist or are familiar with pharmaceutical terminology, and as well as speaking English you are a native speaker of Danish, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Norwegian, Romanian, Swedish, or Turkish then would you like to help check a list of pharmaceutical forms and routes in your own language for us? If so, we'd be very pleased to hear from you by email at martindale@rpsgb.org. We can't offer any remuneration, but you would of course get our sincere thanks along with your name mentioned in print among the contributors to the next book.
*akių lašai and be cukraus if you were wondering
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| LATEST UPDATE ON MEDICINESCOMPLETE |
New for December:
This quarter, revision has been carried out on Antidiabetics and also on sections of Antibacterials, Antineoplastics, Anxiolytic Sedatives Hypnotics and Antipsychotics, Bronchodilators and Anti-Asthma Drugs, Cardiovascular Drugs, Gastrointestinal Drugs, Pharmaceutical Excipients, and Supplementary Drugs and Other Substances. In addition, 48 new monographs have been added and a further 18 existing monographs and treatment reviews have been updated. Information on drugs restricted in sport has been updated for the WADA Prohibited List 2010. Among the changes and additions made are:
- Ferumoxytol monograph expanded to cover the newly approved indication for iron deficiency anaemia in chronic kidney disease.
- New monographs for
- Peramivir - the only intravenous neuramidase inhibitor available; given emergency authorisation by the FDA for used in selected patients with pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza.
- Saxagliptin - a new dipeptidylpeptidase-4 inhibitor for use in the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus
- Guggul (Indian Bdellium) as one of several Ayurvedic medicines of increasing interest in the west.
- Avanafil (for erectile dysfunction), dapoxetine (for premature ejaculation), and flebanserin (a.k.a. "female Viagra").
For more information on MedicinesComplete please visit our website.
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| ENEWSLETTER FEEDBACK |
| Please let us know if there are any issues that you would like us to address in e-newsletters. We welcome your feedback, if you have any comments or suggestions please let us know at martindale.enews@pharmpress.com.
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