Principles of Pharmacology The Pathophysiologic Basis of Drug Therapy

 This book represents a new approach to the teaching o a first or second year medical school pharmacology course. The book, titled Principles of Pharmacology: The Pathophysiologic Basis of Drug Therapy , departs rom standard pharmacology textbooks in several ways. Principles of Pharmacology provides an understanding o drug action in the framework o human physiology, biochemistry, and pathophysiology. Each section o the book presents the pharmacology o a particular physiologic or biochemical system, such as the cardiovascular system or the in ambition cascade. Chapters within each section present the pharmacology o a particular aspect o that system, such as vascular tone or eicosanoids. Each chapter presents a clinical vignette, illustrating the relevance o the system under consideration; then discusses the biochemistry, physiology, and pathophysiology o the system; and, finally, presents the drugs and drug classes that activate or inhibit the system by interacting with specific molecular and cellular targets. In this scheme, the therapeutic and adverse actions o drugs are understood in the Framework o the drug’s mechanism o action. The physiology, biochemistry, and pathophysiology are illustrated using clear and concise figures, and the pharmacology is depicted by displaying the targets in the system on which various drugs and drug classes act. Material rom the clinical vignette is referenced at appropriate points in the discussion o the system. Contemporary directions in molecular and human pharmacology are introduced in chapters on modern methods o drug discovery and drug delivery and in a chapter on pharmacogenomics.