'Instant pharmacology', by Kourosh Seab-Parsy, Ravi G. Assomull, Fakhar Z. Khan, Kasra Saeb-Parsy and Eamonn Kelly. Pp xiv+349. Price £19.99. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 1999. ISBN 0471 97639 3.
This book is an attempt to present a concise summary of the essentials of pharmacology for clinically orientated undergraduate students and working clinicians. Indeed, it is written by undergraduates and represents a commendable undertaking at such a stage in their careers. The book approaches the study of pharmacology from this undergraduate point of view. It starts out by examining the basic principles of quantitative pharmacology and chemical transmission, followed by an examination of systems pharmacology. The book also contains a drug dictionary so that details of the actions of individual drugs can be rapidly identified.
The book opens with a short introduction to pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics. This section of the book is rather brief for students in the later stages of an undergraduate degree. For example, there is no mention of the Hill-Langmuir equation, equilibrium constants, radioligand binding studies, pA2 values or desensitisation. However, the ensuing section on chemical transmission is much more comprehensive. The approach used here is receptor led. Such an approach helps to give the student beginner a framework for their pharmacological studies. However, the current revolution in pharmacology brought about by molecular genetic approaches is not discussed in detail. Some mention of gene families and basic receptor structures would have greatly added to this section and would also have increased the number and subtypes of receptors described.
Following the discussion of neurotransmitter receptors, the book moves on to describe the pharmacological agents used to modify particular physiological systems. This, again, is a useful approach, although the scope of the work only allows a brief description of background physiology and the aetiology of disease states.
A quite comprehensive dictionary of commonly encountered drugs follows this description of pharmacology. This is a very helpful inclusion, allowing the uses and actions of an unknown drug to be instantly understood. It will be very useful to pharmacology students, although clinicians will need additional information about adverse drug effects. The self tests which have been provided will also be of great assistance when preparing for examinations.
The book throughout contains many clear summarising tables and diagrams. They help the reader to focus quickly on the essential features of a drug's actions and see its relationship to other strategies for effecting a therapeutic change.
This book will not meet all a student's needs in pharmacology during the course of an undergraduate degree. However, that was not the author's stated purpose. Instead, the work was intended as an easily accessible outline of pharmacology, upon which to build one's revision about the essentials of drug actions. In this aim, the book has succeeded.
Reviewer - J. G. Connolly
J. G. Connolly is lecturer in the department of physiology and biochemistry at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow