Written by and for nurse practitioners, this practical textbook focuses on what primary care providers need to learn and practice drug therapy. With an overall emphasis on patient teaching and health promotion, you will learn how to provide effective patient teaching about medications and how to gain patient compliance. Drug coverage focuses on "key drugs" rather than "prototype drugs," so you can find important information about the most commonly used drugs rather than the first drug in each class. You will also find discussions on the legal and professional issues unique to nurse practitioners and other primary care providers. The 3rd edition also features an expanded emphasis on established clinical practice guidelines and evidence-based practice, plus two new chapters that cover drugs for ADHD and drugs for dementia. UNIQUE! Written specifically for nurse practitioners with an overall emphasis on patient teaching and health promotion. UNIQUE! Covers specific topics such as prescriptive authority, role implementation, and writing prescriptions. Presents comprehensive coverage of the drugs most commonly prescribed in - and the issues most relevant to - primary care practice. UNIQUE! Identifies the Top 200 drugs in chapter openers with a special icon and covers them in-depth to familiarize you with the most important, need-to-know drug information. Uses a consistent heading scheme for each prototype drug discussion to make it easier to learn and understand key concepts. Includes an introductory chapter on "Design and Implementation of Patient Education" that highlights content on patient teaching and compliance. Includes specific "Patient Education" sections in each drug chapter. Provides extensive coverage of drug therapy for special populations to alert you to special considerations based on age, pregnancy, race and other factors. A separate chapter on "Complementary and Alternative Therapies" discusses the available complementary and alternative modalities, including detailed information on actions, uses, and interactions of commonly used herbs. Drug Overview tables at the beginning of each chapter outline the classifications of drugs discussed and provide a handy reference of drug classes and subclasses, generic names, and trade names. Clinical Alerts highlight essential information that primary care providers must remember in order to avoid serious problems, including cautions for prescribing, information about drug interactions, or warnings about particularly ominous adverse effects. An entire unit covers drugs for health promotion to introduce you to drugs commonly seen in outpatient primary care settings and to prepare you for practice in a society increasingly focused on health promotion and disease prevention. Includes separate chapters on Immunizations and Biologicals, Weight Management, Smoking Cessation, Vitamins and Minerals, Over-the-Counter Medications, and Complementary and Alternative Therapies. Drug coverage focuses on "key drugs" rather than "prototype drugs," since prototype drugs are technically the first drug in a given class but not always the best, newest, or most commonly prescribed drug. Separate chapter on "Treatment Guidelines and Evidence-Based Decision-Making" provides practical guidelines for using the current best evidence to make decisions about the care of individual patients. All content extensively reviewed by a PharmD consultant to ensure the most accurate, current, and clinically relevant pharmacology content. Includes separate chapters on drugs to treat ADHD and dementia in order to expand on the current treatments available for these two common conditions.