Publisher's Synopsis
The forum on Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics is one of a number that have been established by the Royal Society of Medicine, London, over the past few years. The intention of the forum is to bring together people from many disciplines to discuss topics in the field which need a multidisciplinary approach.;The book contains the original papers which were delivered at a meeting of this forum together with a number of invited contributions to enable the topic to be fully covered in print.;The book has been divided into three main sections concerned with: the benzodiazepines, the social context, and after the benzodiazepines. The emphasis on this group of anxiolytic and hypnotic compounds is inevitable at the present time, particulary in relation to dependence potential and withdrawal effects.;The first part of the work consists of a review of the "state-of-the-art" as far as the benzodiazepines (BDZ) are concerned and, as suceeding chapters indicate, the BDZ are not perhaps "all bad" after all. They still have a number of specific and important indications, provided that judicious concern is exercised for: choice of individual compounds, specific and important indications and choice of the most suitable compound, dosage and duration of treatment in relation to patient personality, the pharmacokinetic properties of different BDZ compounds and the relative importance of cognitive impairment in relation to choice of drug and other circumstances.;The second part is concerned with the social background, against which we should view the problem of anxiety and insomnia can create considerable morbidity, particulary the elderly, whilst the general practitioner is inundated with requests for help from his anxious patients. The patients predicament is indeed acute, with the search on the one hand for deliverance from the social upheaval caused by anxiety; and on the other, the fear of the harm that may ensue from the means employed to provide that deliverance.;The consequent legal implications, not only for those companies but for the doctors who in all good faith prescribe their products, is of acute social concern, particularly in the U.K at the present time.
