Goodman & Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics

Rating:
Summary: VERY CLOSE TO BEING PERFECT
Review: "Goldman & Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics" is one brain toasting book. It reminds me of the "Principles of Pharmacology: Basic Concepts & Clinical Applications" (edited by Paul Munson). Of course, either of these two books can serve as a reference tool; and although the latter maintains a price advantage, 'Goldman & Gilman's' is more ubiquitous.
It is rich, versatile, and presents well laid-out voluminous chapters. Anyone who reads this book will appreciate how it tackled General Therapeutics, Biochemistry, and Molecular Biology.

Rating:
Summary: Good....but out of date!
Review: "Goodman & Gilman" has been the staple of pharmacology for many years, and with good reason. While I agree with the other reviewers that it is the gold standard, in the "old days" the book was updated about every 5 years, and this one came out in 1996. Given that the book probably took a couple of years to revise, the information is close to 10 years out of date! As is stated in the Notice on p. xviii, "Medicine is an ever-changing science." I have been waiting for the 10th Edition for some time now...!

Rating:
Summary: Good....but out of date!
Review: "Goodman & Gilman" has been the staple of pharmacology for many years, and with good reason. While I agree with the other reviewers that it is the gold standard, in the "old days" the book was updated about every 5 years, and this one came out in 1996. Given that the book probably took a couple of years to revise, the information is close to 10 years out of date! As is stated in the Notice on p. xviii, "Medicine is an ever-changing science." I have been waiting for the 10th Edition for some time now...!

Rating:
Summary: Complete but dense
Review: As a medical student I find the most complete books to be the most helpful; nothing is more painful than being asked a question by some physician to which you don't know the answer. G&G offers a well laid out and thoughtfully constructed format for learning about mechanisms of action, adverse reactions, et al; but it's extremely dense. NOT appropriate for board studying but great for a pharmacology course. I would recommend the Lange pharm series as well for any med student taking pharm.

Rating:
Summary: INDISPENSIBLE pharmacological/physiological reference
Review: As a PhD student in physiology, I would rate this as one of the most indispensible books in my library. It is very detailed and very thorough, and is, in my opinion, an essential addition to any physiologist's library.

Rating:
Summary: The "BIBLE" of pharmacology still the best.
Review: Despite the fact that some of the wonderful, pithy, humanistic comments are missing that were in the first few editions, the new G&G is still the best! It warrents being on everyone's must- buy list.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent information source, a bit tough reading at times
Review: Goodman & Gilman remains THE pharmacology textbook The introduction to each section gives a welcome overview of, and feel for what is important. Detailed reading is necessary for the serious student - missing a single line can give a false impression of the intended meaning. Thorough explanations with detailed graphics provide deep understanding where the reader desires. Difficult at times but worth the effort.

Rating:
Summary: A Change in the "Bible" of pharmacology
Review: I am a country family practice physican and a UAMS clinical teacher. G&G has been THE basic pharmacology textbook since world war II. The ninth edition is the first that is not directly edited by the family team of Drs. Goodman, Gilman and Goodman Gilman. It is slightly different from previous editions and contains more illustrations with tables. Due to the constant changes in medicine, the new edition is a must! Keep your earlier edition and you will have the best of the old world of medicine and the new. Even after 15 years of practice, there is much to learn in this classic text. We will miss the Goodman-Gilman family but their tradition for excellence carries on.

Rating:
Summary: very comprehensive, yet very, very dry
Review: I used this as a textbook for an udergraduate pharmacology class. While it is a very comperhensive book, and covers probably all you'd ever want to know and then some, about many drugs, it might just provide too much information for an introductory pharmacology class. Its not as if its hard to understand-I felt that the writing was clear enough, its just that there is so much information, its hard to pick out the important bits. I remember that in our class, we'd have random quizes where we'd get lists of about twelve drugs and we'd have to summarize their actions. Now if you used Goodman and Gilman and you made flashcards, you'd probably have way more information than what the professor expected on the quiz, and then if you did happen to remember some random facts that were mentioned in G&G you might not get credit becasue the facts were so obscure even the professor didn't remember them. I'd have preferred a textbook that outlined very briefly the system that the drugs were affecting, a concise picture of how they act, and then maybe one or two examples. This book just takes it too far. There are like twenty drugs explained in excrusiating detail in each section that you forget what the class of drugs as a whole is supposed to do. Take home message: a great reference book, but its just too dense to be used as a text book. I still use it though, from time to time, when I am checking out info on drugs my family, friends, or I am planning to take.

Rating:
Summary: Great Reading
Review: I've been reading this book since I was a college student in the sixties. I have learned a lot about pharmacology from it and I read it for pleasure. I especially love the the description of the discovery of one of our most powerful classes of antibiotic-it was found in a sample taken from a sewer outlet off Naples, Italy, Fantastic. Great reading and I'm a Lawyer not an M.D. It does help to have a little chemistry and biology in your background.