Promotional Literature

[Guest guest]

Respected members,Before going in to the details of Promotional Literature here are the various

Sources of Drug Information

The availability of

different types of sources of information helps to answer

drug-related questions. The main source of information

is the published literature which is of different categories, viz. Primary, Secondary and Tertiary.

Primary literature

is classified as original publications and consists of research studies, case reports, editorials, and letters

to the editor. Most primary literature

contains a detailed description of the study

design, methodology, and scientific results. The reader needs to critique and analyze the study in order to

develop a conclusion. Examples of primary

literature resources include articles and

studies presented in peer-reviewed journals like New England Journal of

Medicine, Journal of the American Medical

Association, Journal of Postgraduate Medicine, Lancet,

British Medical Journal, etc.

Secondary literature is compiled by indexing and abstracting services that can be

used to systematically locate various types

of published literature. Different formats

of secondary literature are available in the form

of various databases like Medline, Embase, PubMed, National Library of Medicine Gateway, International

Pharmacy Abstracts, Current Contents, and

Toxline.

The information presented in tertiary literature is core knowledge

established via primary literature or

accepted as standard of practice within the

medical community. The tertiary reference may consist of textbooks on various drugs or disease topics (e.g.

on’s Principles of Internal Medicine),

compendia (a vast array of information about

many drugs such as the Physician’s Desk Reference).

Another, but important and

significant source of drug information is the

promotional literature generated by the pharmaceutical

companies. The information is in the form of

verbal presentations by medical representatives in the physicians’ clinics, advertising in the journals, direct

mailings, organizing CMEs etc. Amongst these

strategies verbal presentations by the

medical representative is the an important source

of information as it is readily available and many a times it is the only source on which physicians depend for

updating their knowledge.

Regards

Dr Sanjay Yallappa Choudhari

JR3,Dept of Pharmacology

GMC, Nagpur