Pharmacy Students: Getting Started at UC San Diego: Find Drug Resources

A guide for new Pharmacy students on the resources and services available at the UC San Diego Library.

Online Resources & Books

The UC San Diego Library's most popular resources for Drug Information

The following list includes the key pharmacy-specific databases to find the original literature and a wealth of synthesized resources to help you quickly find the information you need, from finding background information about a drug (e.g. pharmacology, pharmacokinetics) to information for treating patients (e.g. dosing, interactions).

AHFS Drug Information
This is the new interactive online version of this classic drug compendium, published by ASHP . You will need to create a free personal account the first time you access the database. Print editions are also available at the WongAvery Library.

Access Pharmacy
Like AccessMedicine, find videos, learning games, Q&A, leading pharmacy textbooks, and information about drugs, herbs and supplements. There are helpful resources for both pharmacy and medical students and clinicians.
ClinicalKey This link opens in a new window
ClinicalKey gives you access to quick answers at the point of care alongside trusted, comprehensive medical evidence. It includes clinical overviews, full-text books and journals, drug information, procedure videos, clinical calculators, patient education handouts, practice guidelines, clinical trials, and MEDLINE® citations and abstracts. Physicians can earn and claim CME.

Clinical Pharmacology (Mobile version available)
This database has comprehensive coverage of marketed US drugs and some investigational agents. Terminology is consistent throughout the database, allowing comprehensive searches of various topics such as drugs that cause specific adverse reactions, all drugs used for certain indications, etc. The database has references to the primary literature. It also contains a drug identification tool, drug interaction checker, and patient handouts. It is recognized by the federal government as a source for off-label drug uses.
Meyler’s Side Effects of Drugs: The International Encyclopedia of Adverse Drug Reactions and Interactions
This database contains extensive, well-referenced electronic books on adverse reactions reported on drugs and drug classes. Search for drug names to find case reports of adverse effects, or search for adverse effects to find lists of drugs that have been associated with that effect.

Micromedex
This is a collection of databases with "Drugdex" as the key one. A search is done across all databases and is likely to find information in several of the databases. It has somewhat more extensive referencing than other major databases, with some information on investigational and non-US drugs as does Martindale (a European drug database) which is included in the Micromedex package. The package also contains a drug identification tool ("Identidex"), a drug interaction checker, patient handouts, summary drug documents and three teratology databases.
NatMed Pro
A comprehensive database of natural products, herbals and nutraceuticals, including proprietary combinations on the market. It is particularly useful for identifying the components of multiple-ingredient products. (Formerly Natural standard and Natural medicines comprehensive database.)