Description
Clinical pharmacology
Doctors now face a professional lifetime of handling drugs that are new to themselves – drugs that do new things as well as drugs that do old things
better; and drugs that were familiar during medical training become redundant.
We write not only for readers who, like us, have a special interest in pharmacology. We try to make
pharmacology understandable for those whose primary interests lie elsewhere but who recognise that
they need some knowledge of pharmacology if they are to meet their moral and legal ‘duty of care’
to their patients. We are aware too, of medical curricular pressures that would reduce the time devoted
to teaching clinical pharmacology and therapeutics, and such diminution is surely a misguided policy
for a subject that is so integral to the successful practice of medicine. Thus, we try to tell readers what
they need to know without burdening them with irrelevant information, and we try to make the subject interesting. We are very serious, but seriousness does not always demand wearying solemnity.
All who prescribe drugs would be wise to keep in mind the changing and ever more exacting expectations of patients and of society in general. Doctors who prescribe casually or ignorantly now face
not only increasing criticism but also civil (or even criminal) legal charges. The ability to handle new
developments depends, now more than ever, on comprehension of the principles of pharmacology.
These principles are not difficult to grasp and are not so many as to defeat even the busiest doctors
who take upon themselves the responsibility of introducing manufactured medicines into the bodies
of their patients.
