Much of the information about drugs is, of course, far too technical for untrained people to fully understand.  Nevertheless, consumers repeatedly express a desire to know more about the medications they are using.

What Am I Taking contains “snapshots” of 100 of the most commonly-used drugs in Australia.  We developed the list of drugs by referring to prescribing statistics from Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, as well as including some common non-prescription drugs and a few relatively new drugs which are already being widely prescribed.

The drug profiles in the book are brief and include important information which users need to know about each drug:  what they are for, how they work, potential side effects and interactions with other drugs, and how they should be used.

The book is divided into five sections:

• Warnings, Precautions and More contains important general information and advice about pharmaceutical drugs and their use
• Drug Profiles – More Information explains the content of the individual drug profiles
• Treatment Classes contains more information about the different conditions that the various types of drugs in the profiles are used for
• Drug Profiles are the 100 drugs specifically covered by the book, listed alphabetically
• Brand Index lists the most common brand names for each profiled drug.

Why I wrote What am I taking and What am I taking? – How and why it will help you.