Pharmacy: NLM Drug Databases

Search a database of the most recent drug labels (also called package inserts) submitted to the FDA.

The database links you to the information from the labels of over 30,000 dietary supplement products in the marketplace, including vitamins, minerals, herbs or other botanicals, amino acids, and other specialty supplements. It includes name, form, active and inactive ingredients, amount of active ingredient, manufacturer/distributor information, label claims, warnings, percentage of daily value, and additional label information. The database can be searched by product names, text terms found on product labels, specific dietary ingredients, and manufacturers.

The Portal provides users a comprehensive gateway to information on over 53,000 substances (over 200,000 unique searchable drug names and their synonyms) not only from NLM but also from other U.S. government agencies. It covers drugs from the time they are entered into clinical trials through their entry into the U.S. marketplace. The Drug Portal touches on all related information resources at NLM to provide for a comprehensive view. It is intended as a "middle ground" resource which includes information for the consumer, health professionals, and researchers.

Learn about your prescription drugs and over-the-counter medicines from MedlinePlus, the National Institutes of Health's Web site for patients and their families and friends. Read about side effects, dosage, special precautions, and more. Browse dietary supplements and herbal remedies to learn about their effectiveness, usual dosage, and drug interactions.

The database Drugs and Lactation, or LactMed, responds to the increased prevalence of breastfeeding worldwide. Drugs in breast milk pose a potential risk to the breast-fed infant, and LactMed provides healthcare practitioners and nursing mothers with data and information on drugs to which breastfeeding mothers may be exposed, and the effects of those agents on nursing infants and on lactation. LactMed contains about 1,000 records on drugs, herbals and dietary supplements that also include a summary regarding use of the specified substance during lactation, potential alternative medications, and references that are linked to their respective PubMed records. LactMed is endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The LiverTox database provides researchers, physicians, and patients with up-to-date and comprehensive information about drug induced liver injury. It contains drug records with concise data on medications, herbals, and dietary supplements that can affect the liver. LiverTox also includes a case registry that allows users to submit relevant clinical cases to LiverTox and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

RxNorm provides normalized names for clinical drugs and links its names to many of the drug vocabularies commonly used in pharmacy management and drug interaction software, including those of First Databank, Micromedex, MediSpan, Gold Standard Alchemy, and Multum. By providing links between these vocabularies, RxNorm can mediate messages between systems not using the same software and vocabulary. RxNorm files are available through the NLM download server.

TOXLINE is a bibliographic database with an assortment of citations from specialized journals and other sources. It provides references covering the biochemical, pharmacological, physiological, and toxicological effects of drugs and other chemicals.