Basic Concepts in Pharmacology: A Student's Survival Guide

by Janet L. Stringer

Book Overview

Designed for students, this text sheds light on the most elusive concepts in pharmacology. From drug absorption, mechanism of drug action through pharmacokinetics, each topic is reviewed in... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0070631654
• ISBN13: 9780070631656
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
• Length: 303 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Easy Reading

Great reading for anyone having trouble understanding Pharmacology... I highly recommend it to anyone needing a bit more clarity in the subject.

Excellent book

I am really pleased with this book, I am doing a course by correspondance and there is so much material to cover; this book has provided a logical framework to work from. I particularly like the way key information highlighted in text boxes. The price is very reasonable for the amount of information included in the book.

Good first read

This book is great for the adrenergics and cholinergics. In other areas it is a good foundation, but you need to fill in the details. It gives good suggestions on name recognition - which is invaluable in pharm. It is worth the money, but you can't use it as your only source. It is an excellent building block though.

Concise but skimpy and out of date

This is a very useful book for someone who needs a quick pharmacology review for the USMLE step 1 exam. It can be studied in its entirety within two days, but cementing all the information in long-term memory will require returning to it frequently during the course of study.Stringer's casual student-oriented style helps put the nervous reader at ease and builds confidence while studying, a rarity in review books which are more likely on one of the two polar extremes of intimidating or condescending. The sheer mass of detail can be overwhelming in pharmacology as well, and Stringer is also very helpfully pragmatic in emphasizing which details are important for the student to learn the first time around, and which can be saved for a second pass through the material.Pharmacology books become obsolete quickly, and, like most others, this one needs an update. For example, it covers only sulfonyl ureas, not even mentioning the three newer classes of diabetes drugs.Stringer reminds the reader constantly that her book is not complete, and that it should be supplemented by other material, and she's right. At times its coverage is a bit skimpy, especially on side effects, and it has little discussion about recent trends in treatment options (e.g., that barbiturates are being phased out in favor of the less toxic benzodiazapines). Still it's an excellent starting point and emphasizes well what's most important versus what's less so.One minor quibble is that the editing on this book needs to be tighter - there are quite a few grammatical errors, such as confusing the contraction "it's" with the possessive "its". But this is a minor quibble over a book that is an excellent starting point for reviewing pharmacology for the USMLE step 1.

Great source to get the "skinny" on pharmacology

I have found this handy guide a great way to quickly get a grasp of lecture topics. It only takes minutes to understand the concepts, and saves valuable time by catagorizing the drug types for you. Stringer's style of writing in a conversation format is easy to read, enjoyable, and concise. In fact, I'm purchasing my own copy because it's too hard to find in the library anymore!