Indication Data Details

Using the medication will cure or eradicate the condition it is being used for. Also used if the goal of therapy is to cure, regardless of the chance of success.

e.g. Cancer treatments; infectious disease treatments; treatment of depression

Preventing the occurrence of a condition that may or may not occur, usually over a longer time span and for an indefinite period.

e.g. MI prevention; prevention of BMD loss; prevention of cardiac-related morbidity/mortality

Preventing the occurrence of a specific condition that is likely to occur within a short time span.

e.g. Malaria prophylaxis; PJP prophylaxis; MAC prophylaxis; DVT prophylaxis; migraine prophylaxis

Used when a treatment is controlling or removing symptoms of a condition but isn't curing/treating the underlying cause or resulting in disease modification. Can also be used to describe palliative treatments.

e.g. NSAIDs for osteoarthritic pain; antihistamines for allergies; palliative cancer therapies

Used when a treatment controls, periodically halts, or alters the progression of a condition/disease but doesn't cure or reverse it.

e.g. Diabetes; hypertension; pain; autoimmune disorders (psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis, etc.); congenital disorders (cystic fibrosis, familial hypercholesterolemia, etc)

Used when the drug is indicated for use as a therapy rather than in the treatment or management of a condition or disease.

Will be used with a "therapy": { ... }.

e.g. Nutritional supplementation; Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART); contraception; abortion; Hormone Replacement Therapy; anesthesia

Used when the drug is used to induce a very specific state, often related to the mechanism of action of the drug. Sometimes can be used interchangeably with "for_therapy".

e.g. Sedation; ovulation; smooth muscle relaxation

Used when the drug reverses a very specific state, often related to the mechanism of action of the drug. Frequently used for overdoses.

e.g. Cyanide poisoning; neuromuscular blockade; sedation; overdose

When the drug is being used as a diagnostic agent, usually for diagnosis of a specific condition (ex: prostate cancer, penicillin allergy, tuberculosis, etc).

Linked with a "condition": [ ... ] and/or a "process": [ ... ] .

When the drug is used as part of a diagnostic process (ex. MRI, angiography, penicillin skin testing, etc), usually for a specific condition (ex: prostate cancer, penicillin allergy, tuberculosis, etc).

Linked with a "process": [ ... ] and usually also a "condition": [ ... ].

Used specifically for adjunct/adjuvant treatment. These drugs are not used alone, and are given to boost the efficacy* of the primary or initial drug. May be combined with the main introductory descriptors.

Usually combined with "adjunct_drugs": [ ... ], "adjunct_drug_categories": [ ... ], and/or "with_therapies": [ ... ] to specify the adjunct drugs and/or therpies.

Can also be combined with "mechanism": { ... } to indicate what part of the therapy this indication satisfies.

* Note: Used for very specific scenarios, such as cancer therapies

When the drug is used in combination with other medications to treat the specified condition or for the specified therapy.

Generally combined with "combination_drugs": [ ... ] or "combination_drug_categories": [ ... ] to specify the other drug(s), although this field may be absent if the drug can be combined with a wide range of other drugs.

Indication of this type will also have a combination_type field to specify the combination type (see below).

For more complex indications involving combinations of the above treatment types.

A drug or list of drugs of the format:
{ "name": ..., "drugbank_id": ... }

Used to specify another drug that the drug is combined with. Often used because indications are tied to specific combinations or because the indication is associated with a combination product.

Indications with this field will also have a combination_type field to specify the combination type (see below).

A drug or list of drugs of the format:
{ "name": ..., "drugbank_id": ... }

Used to specify a drug that the drug is used adjunct to. Adjunct drugs differ from combinations in that the base drug may still be used on its own.

Used to specify a drug category that the drug is used in combination with.

Indications with this field will also have a combination_type field to specify the combination type (see below).

Used to specify a drug category that the drug is used adjunct to. Adjunct drugs differ from combinations in that the base drug may still be used on its own.

Used to specify a therapy that the drug can be used adjunct to.

Occurs in combination with a condition when the main condition being treated is associated with or correlated with another condition or state. Can be used to narrow down a specific aspect of a condition that the drug is treating.

{
    "kind": "treatment_of",
    "condition": {
        "title": "dry mouth"
        ...
    },
    "condition_associated_with": [
        {
            "title": "Sjogren's syndrome"
            ...
        }
    ]
},
{
    "kind": "symptomatic_treatment_of",
    "condition": {
        "title": "neuropathic pain"
    },
    "condition_associated_with": [
        {
          "title": "multiple sclerosis"
        }
    ]
}

Multiple conditions sometimes need to be treated as a single condition when creating indications. Some combinations may be well known, perhaps included in Meddra, ICD-10, or SNOMED, while others are more ad-hoc. For this reason, indications based on combination conditions include information on their constituent parts. This is a nested object that can contain the following attributes:

{
    "kind": "management_of",
      "condition": {
          "title": "grand mal seizures",
          "combination_of": {
              "base": {
                  "title": "seizures",
              },
              "additional_characteristics": [
                  "grand mal"
              ]
          }
      }
  }

{
    "kind": "treatment_of",
    "condition": {
        "title": "malaria caused by Plasmodium ovale",
        "combination_of": {
            "included_conditions": [
                {
                    "title": "malaria"
                }
            ],
            "caused_by": {
                "title": "Plasmodium ovale"
            }
        }
    }
},
{
    "kind": "treatment_of",
    "condition": {
        "title": "extrapyramidal symptoms caused by thioxanthenes ovale",
        "combination_of": {
            "included_conditions": [
                  {
                      "title": "extrapyramidal symptoms"
                  }
              ],
            "caused_by": {
                "title": "thioxanthenes"
            }
        }
    }
}

{
    "kind": "treatment_of",
    "condition": {
        "title": "pituitary insufficiency with profound LH deficiency",
        "combination_of": {
            "included_conditions": [
                {
                    "title": "pituitary insufficiency"
                },
                {
                    "title": "profound LH deficiency"
                }
            ]
        }
    }
}

Used when the condition is represented as a modification of other condition. This is a nested object that can contain the following attributes:

"severity": {
    "includes":  [ "acute", "severe" ],
    "excludes": [ "unresectable" ]
}

To specify if the treatment can only be used in either males or females.

Allow values are: male, female, all (if the treatment explicitly applies to all people regardless of sex).

Lists of age groups that the treatment can or cannot be used in.

Allowed values are: neonatal, infant, pediatric, adolescent, adult, elderly/geriatric.

For specifying when ingredient combinations are used together for the management or treatment of a condition but are NOT commercially available within a fixed dose combination (FDC).

For specifying when ingredient combinations are used together for the management or treatment of a condition and ARE commercially available within a fixed dose combination product (FDC).

Use to specify combinations of OTC products. Most OTC products have fixed indications that don't need to go through clinical trials like a prescription product would before receiving approval.

Dose form descriptors can specify the dosage form or formulation that a medication is available as. Often used to specify whether an indication is specific to the dose form.

Common dose forms include: