Pharmacology for Pharmacy and the Health Sciences

Healthcare delivery is changing across the world. Pharmacy practice is becoming more patient-centred, with both pharmacists and nurses playing a primary role in prescribing drugs in many healthcare settings. The challenge for pharmacy education is to ensure an appropriate understanding of how drugs work within the context of individual patient responses. Pharmacology for Pharmacy and the Health Sciences is specifically designed to meet this challenge. The book provides an understanding of drug action at the cellular and molecular level, which is interfaced seamlessly with an explanation of the clinical use of drugs to treat common clinical conditions. Taking a novel patient-centred approach, the book features a series of embedded workbooks, which develop clinical topics in the context of individual patients and their experience of illness, to relate the scientific basis of pharmacology to real-life pharmacy practice. The workbooks provide a highly structured student-directed educational environment in which the reader understands more and memorises less. They help the reader to interpret presenting symptoms, hospital clinical clerking and patient history notes, and understand the therapeutic strategy and clinical outcome, all within a simple student-friendly format. The patient-centred approach does not come at the expense of providing a sound scientific framework: each workbook is preceded by an explanation of the pathophysiology of the clinical conditions featured, and the pharmacological basis of the drugs used in each therapeutic area. Pharmacology for Pharmacy and Health Sciences is the perfect course companion for anyone needing to develop a solid understanding of pharmacology and its impact on pharmacy and clinical practice. Introduces pharmacology in a way that is tailored to the needs of pharmacy and health care students, in terms of depth, breadth, and approach A unique patient-centred approach teaches the pharmacological basis of therapeutics in the context of individual patients and their experience of illness Novel format couples the explanation of the scientific basis of pharmacology to extensive opportunities for clinically-oriented hands-on learning Workbooks provide a powerful vehicle for integrating an understanding of the science of drug action at the cellular/molecular level directly with the therapeutic response in individual patients Supported by an Online Resource Centre, which offers additional teaching and learning materials for both lecturers and students Michael Boarder , Professor of Pharmacology, Leicester School of Pharmacy Leicester, England., David Newby , Senior Lecturer in Clinical Pharmacology, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia., and Phyllis Navti , Divisional Lead Prescribing Advisor for North Division, Leicestershire County and Rutland Primary Care Trust NHS and Senior Lecturer in Pharmacy Practice, Leicester School of Pharmacy "There are many great books about Pharmacology, of which this is just one, but there are relatively few that that takes the patient centred approach. On the latter topic this book is exceptional. " - Dr Shori Thakur, University of Hertfordshire "This is probably the best (most novel, useful, and user-friendly) in-print execution of a workbook approach that I've seen. " - Dr Marshal Shlafer, University of Michigan Medical School CONTENTS Section 1. Introduction 1: Drugs, patients, and this book 2: How do drugs work? An introduction 3: Pharmacokinetics Section 2. The cardiovascular system 4: Haemostasis, thromboembolic disorders 5: Hypertension 6: Atherosclerosis & ischaemic heart disease 7: Arrhythmias & heart failure Section 3. Inflammation and immune disease 8: Inflammation and the skin: dermatitis, acne, and psoriasis 9: Rheumatoid arthritis 10: Allergies and antihistamines: allergic rhinitis and urticaria 11: Respiratory disease - asthma and COPD Section 4. Gastrointestinal and endocrine disorders 12: Upper gastrointestinal tract disorders 13: Disorders of the lower gastrointestinal tract 14: Diabetes mellitus and obesity 15: The thyroid and contraception Section 5. Central nervous system 16: Epilepsy 17: Degeneration in the brain: Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease 18: Schizophrenia 19: Depression and anxiety 20: Pain and its drug treatment Section 6. Treatment of infections and cancer management 21: The treatment of infections 22: Cancer chemotherapy