Customer Reviews

Basic and Clinical Pharmacology, 11th Edition (LANGE Basic Science)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Having been in primary care medicine for nearly 20 years, I have found Katzung's "Pharmacology" books to be enormously informative and practical at the same time. There always are initial chapters that enable one to review one's biochemistry and physiology of drugs, followed by a balanced and pragmatic summary of all relevant groups of drugs, including their drawbacks and drug interactions. I have bought every edition of this book during and since medical school, and it has been invaluable - especially in regards to when new drugs are introduced into the market. One only needs to look up similar drugs or its "predecessors" to forewarn the clinician of the safety of prescribing the new drug in question. (For example, from my background in biochemistry and constantly reading up of pharmacology in these books, I predicted that Vioxx would cause problems in both diabetic patients and heart patients, and refused to prescribe it. Look what happened!!!)

Linda E. Dewey, M.D.

Great complement to med school pharm. The book introduces a class of medicines with diagrams and mechanisms of action. For me it definitely clarified ideas presented in pharm lectures that I didn't quite get.

I am a graduate student in Chemistry and used this book to learn the basics of Pharmacology. There was enough background for me to learn even though I do not have a Biology/Physiology background at all.

I bought this for M2 year of med school. The information in the book is fairly complete, but I will still need to go to Goodman & Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics to really put burning questions to rest. Also note, hopefully your school has a subscription to Access Medicine for both of these resources.

My favorite book for pharm so far is Lippincott's Illustrated Reviews: Pharmacology, 4th Edition (Lippincott's Illustrated Reviews Series). It has 90 percent of the information I need, including new drug classes. It is a little lean on the structures, which Lange covers pretty well. However, I used Illustrated Pharm for all of my antimicrobial information, and hope to use it the rest of M2 year.

Also, don't be scared of Goodman, it's a beast of a tomb but that is because it would be like having you own personal professor describe in detail the mechanism of every drug used for treatment. I cant tell you how many times I thought it was leaving me hanging on an explanation, only to find my questions addressed 3-4 sentences later. Well written and complete, but there is just a lot of stuff to learn about every drug!

I have read the first several chapters of this book and I have to say the pictures are very nice, colorful and easy to understand. My complaint about this book is that there are no review questions either before or after each chapter. I like testing myself to see if I captured the take home message of each chapter and sadly this book does not have review questions before/after the chapters. There are a few case studies however; they do add to the content of the select chapters that there are case studies. Overall, the book is fine, if you like review questions like me, then choose another book.

I am a physician looking for a book that helps me clinically. The 9th edition was great. This one is like getting a Goodman and Gillman. Example, 9th edition for antidepressants tells me which cause sedation, well written and easy to follow, this does not even have the same table. Its very complicated and I would not recommend it. Much worse than the 9th edition.

Had to purchase this book for pharmacy school. This seems to be a pretty nice book. Lots of good pictures and diagrams and fairly thorough explanations. It was a required text but I am not disappointed as I have referred to it numerous times.

While the cover is very pretty, and there are some good diagrams found within this text, overall, I would have to say that I really do not like this text. There is simply not enough substance, and the layout of the drugs and concepts within the chapters is a nightmare. I also very much dislike it when the editors re-arrange the chapters between editions--which to me is evidence of them having nothing else better to do. Also, some of the errors simply drive me crazy.
Find a different primary text... but perhaps use the Katzung review book, I find the multiple choice with explanations, and review points to be very useful. But again, it is simply that, a review book.
If you are looking for a good primary reference text, check out Goodman and Gilman, because Katzung is definitely not worth the money.

I read every single page of this book during this past semester and found it to be very informative. Seeing how it was a requirement for my class and is likely the requirement for whoever reads this review...all I have to say is hang in there. There are parts of this book where you will certainly be scratching your head, but if you take your time reading you will get it. Good Luck!

I always wanted a textbook in pharmacology that review the molecular basis of the action mecanisms. This is my new best book in the subject, for some people may appear boring, but for me is excellent, and the images are great for the explanations. Get it, you won't regret it.