Principles of Pharmacology : The Pathophysiologic Basis of Drug Therapy

Unlike other pharmacology text organised by drug class, "Principles of Pharmacology" integrates relevant knowledge from the basic biomedical sciences such as physiology, pathophysiology, cell and molecular biology, biochemistry, anatomy, neurobiology, microbiology and immunology - to build an integrated, conceptual understanding of drug therapy.

By discussing the therapeutic and adverse actions of drugs in the framework of the drug's mechanism of action, the book enables to achieve a level of mastery in pharmacology that far surpasses that achieve by rote memorisation.

The content reflects recent advances in biological and biomedical science to improve understanding of mechanisms of drug action at the molecular level.

Written and edited by students and faculty from Harvard Medical School, the text blends the enthusiasm and perspective of student authors with the experience and expertise of faculty authors, to provide a comprehensive and consistent presentation of modern, mechanism - based pharmacology.Its features are: each chapter begins with a clinical case specific to a target system, followed by the relevant biochemistry, physiology, and pathophysiology of the system; each chapter presents and analyses drugs and drug classes that affect the system by interacting with specific molecular and cellular targets; over 400, two colour figures that illustrate the molecular, cellular, biochemical, physiologic, and pathophysiologic processes underlying disease and depict the targets of drug therapy; and each chapter includes summary tables of drugs by mechanism, class, side effects, interactions, and contraindications, allowing for effective and rapid review.

The other features are: it contains chapters on important new areas in pharmacology and therapeutics, including how new drugs are discovered, drug delivery mechanisms, pharmacogenomics, protein based and gene therapies, toxicology, integrative cardiovascular pharmacology, and integrative inflammation pharmacology; and its use of up to date molecular and cellular science allows for the incorporation of new drugs into the learner's knowledge base.