A knowledge of pharmacological and therapeutic principles is vital if drugs/medicines are to be used safely and effectively for increasingly informed and critical patients.

Those who understand how drugs get into the body, how they produce their effects, what happens to them in the body, and how evidence of their therapeutic effect is assessed, will choose drugs more skilfully, and use them more successfully than those who do not.

Essential reading for anyone concerned with evidence-based drug therapy!
Contents: Section 1 General. Topics in drug therapy and clinical pharmacology. Clinical pharmacology. Discovery and development of drugs. Evaluation of drugs in man. Official regulation of medicines. Classification of drugs: names of drugs. Section 2 From Pharmacology to Toxicology. General pharmacology. Unwanted effects of drugs: adverse reactions. Poisoning, drug overdose, antidotes. Non-medical use of drugs. Section 3 Inflammation, Immunology, Infection. Chemotherapy. Antibacterial drugs. Chemotherapy of bacterial infections. Chemotherapy of viral, fungal, protozoal and helminthis infections. Inflammation, arthritis and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Drugs and the skin. Section 4 Nervous System. Pain and analgesics, drugs in palliative care, narcotic analgesics. Sleep and hypnotics, anxiety and anxiolytics. Drugs and mental disorder, psychotropics and psychoactive drugs. Epilepsy, parkinsonism and allied conditions. Anaesthesia and neuromuscular block. Section 5 Cardiorespiratory and Renal Systems. Cholinergic (Cholomimetic) and antimuscarinic (anticholinergic) drugs. Adrenergic mechanisms, sympathomimetics, shock, hypotention. Drugs used in arterial hypertension and angina. Cardiac dysrhythmia and cardiac failure. Hyperlipidaemias. Kidney and urinary tracts. Respiratory system. Section 6 Blood and Neoplastic Disease. Drugs and haemostasis. Cellular disorders and anaemias. Neoplastic disease and immunosuppression. Section 7 Gastrointestinal System. Stomach and oesophagus. Intestines. Liver, biliary tract and pancreas. Section 8 Endocrine System, Metabolic Conditions. Adrenal corticosteroids, antagonists, corticotrophin. Diabetes mellitus, insulin, oral antidiabetic agents. Thyroid hormones, antithyroid drugs. Hypothalmic and pituitary hormones sex hormones, contraception, uterus. Vitamins, calcium bone.