Description
Master how drugs modulate the body’s signaling pathways
Most medicines work not by creating new physiological processes, but by modulating the body's existing signaling systems, the internal language of hormones, neurotransmitters, and cellular messengers. Essential Pharmacology illuminates this central concept while providing accessible yet rigorous mathematical foundations for understanding quantitative pharmacology.
Written by Carl E. Creutz, Harrison Professor of Medical Teaching in Pharmacology, Emeritus at the University of Virginia, this text guides students through drug absorption, distribution, and biotransformation; clinical pharmacokinetics with practical dosing models; and comprehensive pharmacodynamics including receptor theory, competitive antagonism, and partial agonists. The book explores G-protein coupled receptors, second messenger cascades, and signaling networks that drugs target. By emphasizing general principles, it complements specialized texts in clinical therapeutics, veterinary medicine, toxicology, antimicrobial therapy, and nursing practice.
Readers will find:
- Quantitative pharmacology presented with mathematical rigor yet accessible to students with undergraduate science and mathematics training
- Complete drug-receptor interaction models covering competitive antagonists, partial agonists, allosteric mechanisms, and spare receptor theory
- Clinical pharmacokinetics with single-dose and steady-state models enabling rational drug dosing and therapeutic monitoring
- Detailed receptor-effector mechanisms including G-protein signaling, second messengers, and the networks controlling physiological responses
- Focus on the unifying principle that modern pharmacology modulates endogenous signaling rather than creating novel body processes
Essential Pharmacology serves medical, nursing, pharmacy, and other health professional students building theoretical foundations in pharmacology. It equally benefits biomedical researchers, pharmaceutical scientists, and public policy professionals seeking to understand drug development principles and therapeutic limitations.
Table of Contents
About the Author viii
Chapter 1: Introduction 1
Chapter 2: Definition and Scope of Pharmacology 3
Chapter 3: Movement of Drugs to and from Sites of Action 5
Chapter 4: Biotransformation of Drugs 19
Chapter 5: Excretion of Drugs 26
Chapter 6: Clinical Pharmacokinetics 28
Chapter 7: Pharmacodynamics I: Determining Effects in Intact Organisms; Dose-Response Relationships in Patients 56
Chapter 8: Pharmacodynamics II: Determining Sites and Mechanisms of Action of Drugs 60
Chapter 9: Pharmacodynamics III: Quantitative Analysis of Drug–Receptor Interactions 64
Chapter 10: Biological Receptor-Effector Mechanisms 90
Chapter 11: Testing and Evaluation of New Drugs 103
Chapter 12: Further Study in Pharmacology 105
Index 000
