Customer Reviews

Clinical Pharmacokinetics: Concepts and Applications

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
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This book is a very finely crafted comprehensive introduction to pharmacokinetics, with enough pharmacodynamics to give one context. If you are new to PK/PD and need to understand and work with the subject matter this is an EXCELLENT starting point and a fine reference. The prose is clear, the organization thoughtful, and the figures and diagrams are masterful - best in class. The authors are both renowned academics with extensive industrial experience. That background shines through in the thoughtful way that topics are motivated and explained. I found the questions useful and thought-provoking. Isn't it the case that the more iron one pumps in the gym, the stronger one is on the playing field?

One thing that I would add to this book (and most other PK books I've seen) would be a comprehensive listing of the different math models (one or two compartment, IV, or zero or first order input, etc), highlighting different uses (closed form solutions are easiest to use for parameter estimations, ODE formulations for repeat dosing, etc.) and their different parameterizations. This book contains some of this information (e.g. Table 19-1), but an appendix with this info would be useful. An additional improvement with great teaching utility might be an elementary modeling/estimation program for MS-Excel.

For those needing an overview of PK (e.g. a pharma executive responsible for a development program) without a lot of the details necessary for practitioners, a less-comprehensive book that is also very good is Peter Welling's "Pharmacokinetics". Gabriellson's and Weiner's book "PK and PD Data Analysis" has a more spotty overview of the basic subject matter, but does have descriptions of many techniques not found elsewhere. The latter book is "WinNonLin-centric" (WinNonLin is a program written by one of the authors) which may be what is wanted.

My favorite intro book and basic referencer for PK is definitely Rowland and Tozer. Bravo!

"Clinical Pharmacokinetics: Concepts and Applications" (or better known as Rowland and Tozer) is a book filled with deep concepts and good explanations. It is the Bible of Pharmacokinetics. If there is a PK concept you want to look up, this book will be the first place you look for it. Before giving the review, let me introduce my background. I have a formal education in physical chemistry and analytical chemistry and am currently working in the field of pharma. I have currently read through half of this book. Although I have not completely finishing the book, I believe there is enough information to share.

The previous PK book I read was Concepts In Clinical Pharmacokinetics by Joseph T. Dipiro and it is a shorter and simpler book than Rowland and Tozer. While "Concepts In Clinical Pharmacokinetics" was a delight to read, it is on the simpler side and a lot of concepts are left unexplained. When I was reading it, there were often moment of "How did he get from this to that?" or "Where this comes from?", and I had to stop reading and tried to derive the equations. In contrast, Rowland and Tozer explain the principles of PK in great details and often from multiple angles, so that the readers can fully appreciate how the concepts are linked together, how PK theories apply and how PK impacts pharmacology research and the drug discovery. The exercises are challenging, but not impossible. Well, a few of them are nearly impossible, but most of them can be worked out (even for someone of my background).

I would love to give it a 4.5 stars, but that is not an option. I do see there are a few shortcomings in this book. Although it is very detailed, it can be too detailed for beginners, except for students who has more time. It is best to start off with a short and easy to read introductory book. Yes, Rowland and Tozer have explained many concepts in multiple ways and this is generally good, except when you are busy. Sometime, I just feel like: I get your point already. The Final and the real criticism is that the book can be a bit dry. Unlike "Concepts In Clinical Pharmacokinetics", this is not a book to be breezed through.

This excellent book (1980 edition) was my introduction to this topic. I have it in my bookshelf and I keep referring back to it. Without planning it, I've become the resident PK expert in my department thanks to this reference! Thank you Drs. Rowland and Tozer.

Clinical pharmacokinetics is a good book for students and researchers interested in learning the basics of pharmacokinetics. It has some positive points like the "definition of symbols" at the begining of the book, which help a lot when you forget what's the meaning of them. It also has good figures and tables (although some of them need corrections)and the text is most of the time easy to understand (but not always...). On the other hand, the exercises are not very helpful and some of them require a lot of thinking (more than you usually need to solve most pharmacokinetics problems encountered in real life situation). They also extrapolate the information teached in each chapter and this can make you feel really bad after having so much work to read the chapter. Anyway, I do recommend this book for interested students and researchers, always keeping in mind the limitations of its exercises.

The book arrived way ahead of schedule and in the condition promised. It has been very helpful with my classes in pharmacy school.

Can't say I like the information in the book, but the book itself is very beneficial.

Helo, I JUST WOULD LIKE TO ASK YOU IF THE LAST EDITION OF THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE FOR READING FROM YOUR WEB SITE? I THANK YOU IN ADVANCE. ANNICK