An excellent desktop referenceJanuary 3, 2008 0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is the best book I have encountered yet for a practical approach to the use of drugs during pregnancy and lactation. Each class of drugs gets its own chapter, with general information, and then there is a grey box for 'recommendations' at the end of the chapter. Real, practical recommendations, including first-line and second-line choices. This is a book written for people at the sharp end, who have to come up with answers quickly.
Possible disadvantages are:
1. The book is structured by drug - you have to decide what you would like to use first, then find out if it's OK, rather than searching by disease; however, the drugs are organized by therapeutic effect rather than alphabet, so this is not too much of a problem.
2. This is very much a sharp-end book. A great deal of information has been packed into something only a little larger than a housebrick; as a result, there is less detail than in, for instance, Briggs' 'Drugs in Pregnancy and Lactation'. However, if you are after recommendations and advice rather than lots of data, this is not necessarily a problem either.
All in all, an excellent book and one I would recommend to anyone who has to deal with the concept of drug choice in women who are, or may be, pregnant or breast-feeding.
