Amritha Ajith, University of Durham, Queens Campus, Stockton, Phase I Medicine

This is one of the few books that I would recommend that all medical students have a copy of. Some of my classmates even use this book for physiology revision as at the start of each chapter, there is a little physiology thrown in and it's much more readable and easier to understand than Berne and Levy. I haven't read through the whole book yet. I just flip to the sections I need (which is easy with the colour coding of each chapter) and read up on things I haven't understood from lectures- which this book does well. It is also good for doing PBL like assignments. It can be a pain to check out lots of different books on treatments of different conditions so I would recommend people just use this book and go to the appendix. At least it is a good starting point. And a lot of lecturers use this book for lectures so you can't go wrong using what they're using. There isn't too much difference between the 7th edition and the 6th edition. I've noticed the 7th edition is a lot lighter which makes it easier to take home to revise with over the holidays. Some outdated stuff has been taken out so you won't be learning useless information.

Posted 30th Jan 2012

andrew harper, University of Newcastle

The latest version of Rang and Dale comprehensively covers all the essential pharmacology a medical student needs to know. The book is very good at introducing basic principles whilst incorporating higher yield knowledge. The cross-referencing within the text is appropriate and helps direct learning for specific topics. Overall, the book is entirely relevant to any medical student and should definitely be considered as part of any reading list.

Posted 18th Oct 2011

Bernard Ho, St George's, University of London

This edition of the 'classic' pharmacology book is significantly thinner than its predecessor (the 6th edition published in 2007). When compared with the 5th edition (the only edition I have), the number of diagrams haven't changed significantly, despite the amount of material that has been edited. The style of Rang and Dale has not changed, so any keen fans of their series definitely won't be disappointed. There are around 3 new chapters (one of which is linked as 'free content' on the left panel), and some subchapters have been edited from the previous edition so they are their own chapters in this edition. Many chapters have been updated and many out-of-date or redundant drugs have been eliminated from the chapters. However, the diagrams have more or less stayed the same between the different editions. Although the basic concepts are all the same throughout the different editions of the book, it would be nice to see some refreshing of the diagrams. The layout of the pages are not as spacious as the 6th/5th edition, but I personally rather have a thinner book on my shelf. The online access to this book is just a simple ebook version with a handy image library (with all the different diagrams/tables) - which may help for some, but not particularly helpful for me. This book has many tables and diagrams to help with grasping the major pharmacological concepts that can be easily missed in lectures/PBL. Every (sub)chapter has a short introduction to the topic, preventing you from needing to have two-three textbooks open at the same time for any topic. I highly recommend this book for reading and learning from. However, this book is quite detailed for revision or last-minute learning. I would recommend R+D's Pharmacology Condensed (or even their flash cards) for the latter purposes. If you have the 6th edition, I personally think it's a worthwhile investment to get the latest 7th edition if you can sell/loan your 6th edition at a price you'll be happy with. However, I'm very keen on having the latest editions of books - so my priority might be different from you as a reader of my reviews.

Posted 3rd May 2011