diff --git a/include/asterisk/astdb.h b/include/asterisk/astdb.h
index e19784bada5e504d3897698152312c06d12fce5e..4c1fa589092553bc4ab720a394ec693a21cdefae 100644
--- a/include/asterisk/astdb.h
+++ b/include/asterisk/astdb.h
@@ -33,22 +33,37 @@ struct ast_db_entry {
 	char data[0];
 };
 
-/*! \brief Get key value specified by family/key */
+/*!\brief Get key value specified by family/key */
 int ast_db_get(const char *family, const char *key, char *out, int outlen);
 
-/*! \brief Store value addressed by family/key*/
+/*!\brief Store value addressed by family/key */
 int ast_db_put(const char *family, const char *key, const char *value);
 
-/*! \brief Delete entry in astdb */
+/*!\brief Delete entry in astdb */
 int ast_db_del(const char *family, const char *key);
 
-/*! \brief Delete a whole family (for some reason also called "tree" */
+/*!\brief Delete one or more entries in astdb
+ * If both parameters are NULL, the entire database will be purged.  If
+ * only keytree is NULL, all entries within the family will be purged.
+ * It is an error for keytree to have a value when family is NULL.
+ *
+ * \retval 0 Entries were deleted
+ * \retval -1 An error occurred
+ */
 int ast_db_deltree(const char *family, const char *keytree);
 
-/*! \brief Get a whole family */
+/*!\brief Get a list of values within the astdb tree
+ * If family is specified, only those keys will be returned.  If keytree
+ * is specified, subkeys are expected to exist (separated from the key with
+ * a slash).  If subkeys do not exist and keytree is specified, the tree will
+ * consist of either a single entry or NULL will be returned.
+ *
+ * Resulting tree should be freed by passing the return value to ast_db_freetree()
+ * when usage is concluded.
+ */
 struct ast_db_entry *ast_db_gettree(const char *family, const char *keytree);
 
-/*! \brief Free in-memory data */
+/*!\brief Free structure created by ast_db_gettree() */
 void ast_db_freetree(struct ast_db_entry *entry);
 
 #if defined(__cplusplus) || defined(c_plusplus)