This book is designed to help students review pharmacology and to
prepare for both regular course examinations and board examinations. The
tenth edition has been extensively reviewed to make such preparation as
active and efficient as possible. As with earlier editions, rigorous
standards of accuracy and currency have been maintained in keeping with the
book's status as the companion to the Basic & Clinical Pharmacology
textbook. This review book divides pharmacology into the topics used in most
courses and textbooks. Major introductory chapters (eg, autonomic
pharmacology and CNS pharmacology) are included for integration with
relevant physiology and biochemistry. The chapter-based approach facilitates
use of this book in conjunction with course notes or a larger text. We
recommend several strategies to make reviewing more effective.
First, each chapter has a short discussion of the major
concepts that underlie its basic principles or the specific drug group,
accompanied by explanatory figures and tables. The figures are in full color
and many are new to this edition. Students are advised to read the text
thoroughly before they attempt to answer the study questions at the end of
each chapter. If a concept is found to be difficult or confusing, the
student is advised to consult a regular textbook such as Basic &
Clinical Pharmacology, 12th edition.
Second,
each drug-oriented chapter opens with an "Overview" that organizes
the group of drugs visually in diagrammatic form. We recommend that students
practice reproducing the overview diagram from memory.
Third, a list of High Yield Terms to Learn and
their definitions is near the front of most chapters. Make sure that you are
able to define those terms.
Fourth, many chapters
include a "Skill Keeper" question that prompts the student to review
previous material and to see links between related topics. We suggest that
students try to answer Skill Keeper questions on their own before checking
the answers that are provided at the end of the chapter.
Fifth, each of the sixty-one chapters contains up to ten
sample questions followed by a set of answers with explanations. For
most effective learning, you should take each set of sample questions as if
it were a real examination. After you have answered every question, work
through the answers. When you are analyzing the answers, make sure that you
understand why each choice is either correct or incorrect.
Sixth, each chapter includes a Checklist of focused
tasks that you should be able to do once you have finished the chapter.
Seventh, each chapter ends with a Summary Table
that lists the most important drugs and includes key information concerning
their mechanisms of action, effects, clinical uses, pharmacokinetics, drug
interactions, and toxicities.
Eighth, when
preparing for a comprehensive examination you should review the list of
drugs in Appendix I: Key Words for Key Drugs. Students are also
advised to check this appendix at the same time that they work through the
chapters so they can begin to identify drugs out of the context of a chapter
that reviews a restricted set of drugs.
Ninth,
after you have worked your way through most or all of the chapters and have
a good grasp of the Key Drugs, you should take the comprehensive
examinations, each of 100 questions. These examinations are followed by a
list of answers each with a short explanation or rationale underlying the
correct choice and the numbers of the chapters in which more information can
be found if needed. We recommend that you take an entire examination or a
block of questions as if it were a real examination: commit to answers for
the whole set before you check the answers. As you work through the answers,
make sure that you understand why each distractor is either correct or
incorrect. If you need to, return to the relevant chapters(s) to review the
text that covers key concepts and facts that form the basis for the
question.
Tenth, you can use the strategies in
Appendix IV for improving your test performance. General advice for studying
and approaching examinations includes strategies for several types of
questions that follow specific formats.
We
recommend that this book be used with a regular text. Basic &
Clinical Pharmacology, 12th edition (McGraw-Hill, 2012), follows the
chapter sequence used here. However, this review book is designed to
complement any standard medical pharmacology text. The student who completes
and understands Pharmacology: Examination & Board Review will
greatly improve his or her performance and will have an excellent command of
pharmacology.
Because it was developed in parallel
with the textbook Basic & Clinical Pharmacology, this review book
represents the authors' interpretations of chapters written by contributors
to that text. We are grateful to those contributors, to our other faculty
colleagues, and to our students, who have taught us most of what we know
about teaching.
We welcome the participation of
Marieke Kruidering-Hall, PhD, a recipient of the Distinguished Teaching
Award of the University of California, San Francisco, as a co-author of this
10th edition of Pharmacology: Examination & Board Review.
We very much appreciate the invaluable contributions to
this text afforded by the editorial team of Karen Edmonson, Rachel D'Annucci
Henriquez, Harleen Chopra, Harriet Lebowitz, and Michael Weitz. The authors
also thank Alice Camp for her excellent proofreading contributions to this
and earlier editions.
Anthony J. Trevor, PhD
Bertram G. Katzung, MD, PhD
Marieke Kruidering-Hall, PhD
Susan B.
Masters, PhD