Commonly Used Drugs: Uses, Side Effects, Bioavailability & Approaches to Improve It

Drugs (medicines) are considered either the primary therapy or an adjunct to another modality. Physicians of all specialties prescribe drugs on a daily basis, and therefore they need to understand the mode and action by which drugs exert their therapeutic effects. Written records of the use of natural products as medicinal agents date back thousands of years. However, it was not until the early 1800s that the active principles from plants were isolated. Since then thousands of drugs have been introduced to the drugs market. With advances in drug design, molecular biology and genetics, the rate of developing new potent drugs is accelerated. Due to the vast progress in drug development and discovery, medical and pharmacy students, doctors, nurses and pharmacists in training need to learn the principles of therapeutics in order to follow up with the frequent changes in the therapeutics and adapt to them. With contributions from some of my colleagues, this book provides a clear and concise overview of the most important commonly used drugs with emphasis on the pharmacology aspects necessary for a basic understanding of the subject. It reviews the concepts, clinical applications, dosage forms, bioavailability, pharmacokinetics and side effects of a large number of drugs used to alleviate pain, lower cholesterol levels, and treat bacterial infections, diabetes, osteoporosis, bleeding, psoriasis and multiple Sclerosis. This book, with over 750 references, is an excellent pharmacology text for the student who is looking to broaden his/her strengths prior to the exam. The beauty of this text is that it includes essential pharmacology concepts in a compact book that can be quickly referenced and read multiple times during the course of a students studies. In addition, this guide assists scientists trained in molecular biology, medicinal chemistry and related fields who need to know the basic theories, principles and practical applications of pharmacology. With the addition of pharmacokinetics coverage, ways to improve the bioavailability of commonly used drugs and sections on therapeutics that will help readers identify with diseases and drug treatments, this book provides better preparation of researchers in the basics of pharmacology.