Human Pharmacology: Molecular to Clinical

Rating:
Summary: excellent
Review: Bought this one for pharmacology as the primary text. If you want the specifics, they are in this book. Successfully incorparates the physiology involved with pharmacology.

Rating:
Summary: Good but not quite what I needed
Review: I have this book for an undergrad intro to pharmacology paper, as advised by lecturers. It is also the set text for next year. This is a very good reference book, however I think for my purposes, it is a bit too advanced. It's organised very clearly, and I found it quite useful for writing an essay. But I think to get the best use out of it, the reader should be at a more advanced level of study, or someone like a graduated professional using it as a reference. Overall, I think it is concise and easy to read, with a broad range of types and uses of grugs. Each chapter is set out under the same format: therapeutic overview, mechanisms of action, pharmacokinetics, relation of mechanisms to clinical response, side effects & problems & toxicity. I'm not very familiar with other pharmac texts, but this was recommended as the text for further study as well. I have a friend at 2nd year med school, and she found it "good but a bit dry to read".

Rating:
Summary: Gets right down to basics, tells you how and why drugs work
Review: While possibly a bit advanced for undergraduates, I've found this book to be the single best references for people who already have some background knowledge, who need to catch up with advances in the field and don't have the time to read 1800 pages of small print. I'd recommend it for researchers in the life sciences and pharmaceutical industry, and clinicians (including residents). Unlike some references that present a lot of undigested material, the authors aggressively keep up with developments, speak with unambiguous voices, and synthesize the facts very clearly. The quality across the book is remarkably consistent, which is a tribute to the tight editorial control that appears to have been exerted. (Goodman & Gilman, by contrast, is quite uneven.)