Therapeutic Guidelines is produced by Therapeutic Guidelines Limited (TGL), an Australian not-for-profit independent organisation, and is endorsed by several health and pharmacy peak bodies.

These guidelines provide therapeutic information to health practitioners for the management of patients with specific conditions. Treatment guidelines include pharmacological treatment and non-pharmacological treatment, but with an emphasis on pharmacological treatment.

According to TGL the guidelines are "are regularly updated, based on the latest international literature, interpreted by Australia’s most respected experts, with input from an extensive network of general practitioners, pharmacists and other users".

For more information, see the summary that accompanies the listing of this resource on CSU Library's Pharmacy Databases page.

In the Therapeutic Guidelines, you can:

• Browse the Therapeutic Guidelines down the left side of the home screen (or from the heading in the top menu-bar) when you want to read generally about a subject, OR
• Browse the Drug Index when you want to go quickly to a drug and its dose for a given indication, OR
• Use the Search function to search for any term used within Therapeutic Guidelines.

Each broad subject category in the list of Therapeutic Guidelines - e.g. Ulcer and Wound Management - consists of a series of topics.

Each topic - e.g. Diabetic foot ulcer - consists of expandable sub-topics, usually starting with an Overview or Introduction, and finishing with Key References.

You can:

* use the arrows to expand and collapse sections

* search within the content (Search within page box at top right)

* use the Table of Contents to navigate within the topic or to other topics

* use links within the text to navigate to other topics.

Where a medication is indicated, the topic information will include a blue panel with details of drug recommendations, including the generic name, dose, route of administration, and frequency. When more than one drug is listed for an indication, the order of preference is indicated by the number next to it.

The three icons at the right of each recommended drug listing are links to:

• PBS (Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme) information
• Pregnancy category
• Breastfeeding advice about that drug.

See Browsing the Drug Index, below, for an alternative way to arrive at this information on drugs recommended for a condition.

When you click on the link to Browse drug index, you can search for a drug by its generic name. You will get a drop-down list of the drug and the indications for which it is recommended in Therapeutic Guidelines.

When you choose a drug and its indication, you will be taken to the topic information where that drug appears as a recommendation. FOR EXAMPLE:

Searching for clindamycin gives you an option for its use in Diabetic foot infection: Clicking on its indication for Diabetic foot infection - mild takes you to the relevant section of the topic:

The search box is prominent on the Therapeutic Guidelines home page but also appears on every page.

You can search for any term used in the Therapeutic Guidelines. At right is a search for any topics or sub-topics with the word clindamycin and the word diabetic:

At your results list, you can:

* click on a heading to see the full topic/sub-topic
* refine your search by viewing results by guideline 
* refine your search by using the Search within results box.