Drug Information and Consumer Report

By Dr. Fred Raleigh
Plus Magazine
Date: 04/05


If you are fan of Consumer Reports and have used this publication to look up information about various products you can now find information about medications at the Consumer Reports Internet site. At this site, www.CRBestBuyDrugs.org you will be able to find information about four commonly prescribed groups of medications.

These groups are:
  • The Statins - agents used for managing serum lipid (fat) levels,
  • the proton pump inhibitors (PPI) - agents like Prilosec OTC, used to reduce stomach acid content and help with various form of reflux disease,
  • a commonly prescribed group of analgesics found over-the-counter or available by prescription - the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents i.e. ibuprofen, Aleve, etc. and finally,
  • antidepressants

Once you are at the site simply click drug reports located near the top of the home page for Consumer Reports.

Consumer Reports will be adding more therapeutic classes over the coming months. The Consumer Union will be using an independent evaluation source developed by the Drug Effectiveness Review Project (DERP) that was originally created by Oregon legislation in 2001.

Since inception, DERP has spread to 11 states. Readers who would like to see more about DERP reviews can go to: http://www.ohsu.edu/drugeffectiveness/ Once you get to the DERP site you will have to go down about 2 pages below the home page to see reports that you can access. And there are many of them.

On the home page put you mouse on Documents near the top of the page and click. On the next page put your mouse on Final Reports and click. Viola, you are now at a page with a wealth of information about many classes of medications.


Plus 04/05


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