Principles of Drug Action

This is a very comprehensive and thorough textbook, recommended for graduate students in pharmacology programs, and NOT for medical students. It has good examples and covers a wide variety of topics in depth. However, the major drawback is that it is not written in the most "reader friendly" manner (i.e., have some coffee before you dive in). A fourth edition would be extremely welcome. Even minor layout and font changes would make a vast improvement.

This book is a tough act to follow. It's not suitable for med students because it focuses more on how drugs act, rather than organizing the available drugs and how they act on a specific organ or system (e.g., the nervous sistem). If you need that, you'll probably need another great book: Goodman and Gilman's, that it's more suitable for med students. Pratt and Taylor's is written for chemists or for M.D. students that needs an in-depth cover of the molecular aspects of drug action: classification of receptor (biochemical, physiological, biophysical, etc), structure-activity relationships (QSAR), quantification of drug-receptor relationships, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. The chapter about metabolism of drugs is amazing: it covers every reaction involved in reactions of phase I and phase II, clearly explaining what and why happens. Also, it covers in full, but very clear, detail, aspects such as chemical mutagenesis, carcinogensis and teratogenesis. It works fine not only with pharmacology, but with Toxicology as well. Indeed, a great book. Highly recommended!