Features

The  Slone Drug Dictionary contains over 35,000 codes for prescription and non-prescription drug products, dietary supplements, herbal products, and their active ingredients. The database structure provides linkages of reported exposures to their corresponding active ingredients, allowing investigators to easily identify groups of exposures according to a specific component.

• Medicinal agents are classified using the American Hospital Formulary Service-Pharmacologic Therapeutic Classification system (AHFS-PTC), a widely recognized method for classifying drug information.

• Non-medicinal agents, such and vitamins, herbs, and other natural products, are classified using unique expanded classes within the AHFS scheme.

• Drug product codes are linked to their active ingredients, and corresponding pharmacologic classes, allowing investigators to easily identify groups of exposures according to a specific component (e.g., all acetaminophen exposures regardless of brand, single vs. multiple ingredient formulations), drug class ( e.g., Analgesic-Antipyretic), or according to specific product (e.g., acetaminophen with codeine).

• Drugs and drug products may also be grouped into researcher defined categories (coalitions). Drug coalitions may be based upon a particular ingredient (e.g., Folic Acid), therapeutic use (e.g., Diuretics) or pharmacologic classification (e.g., Beta-Adrenergic Blocking Agents), or user specified grouping (e.g., Non-selective NSAIDS without Aspirin). These drug groupings facilitate analysis by aggregating drug exposures based on user defined inclusion and exclusion criteria, tailored to the needs of the researcher.

^*AHFS Pharmacologic-Therapeutic Classification used with permission. Copyright ©1997-2016, American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.