Pharmacy Books

For an impartial review of this book check:

K. Chibale, Synthesis, 2000, 10:1498

I HAVE NEVER SEEN ONE BOOK WITH SO MANY ERRORS IN ALL MY LIFE.
No way was this book ever proof read.
Whoever wrote this book is stupid... says she is a pharmacist. I would hate for her to be giving me medication.
DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK. You will be more confused than ever.

This is a great study guide for the PTCE if you are looking to brush up on everything for the exam. It goes into depth as far as a pharmacy technician would want to know. The practice tests are a great way to let yourself focus on the parts of the exam that you are not as well prepared for. There are some mistakes throughout some of the question and answer sections, but it is pretty easy to figure out the right answers. I used this in conjunction with the Prentice Hall Question and Answer study guide and did a great job on the PTCE.

Personally, I don't trust books with errors in them, whether they be grammatical or technical or any other sort. That's why that upon finding that this book failed to spell PTCB correctly on the first page of the introduction, I returned the book immediately. For a book from the same publishing company that produced the Comprehensive Exam Review for the Pharmacy Technician, I'm sufficiently surprised. I would highly recommend only two books to study for the PharmTech Exam: The Comprehensive Exam Review for the Pharmacy Technician written by Jahangir Moini and a supplemental calculation book.

I am a former science teacher and found this book was the best out of 3 that I bought to prepare for the exam. I took the exam this month and feel confident that I passed. The book breaks up the material into concise chapters with chapter tests. The best are the chapters on drugs that really helped me remember the drug names, mechanisms of action and precautions.

I was so angry with this book that I actually wrote down the errors as I read it so that I could share it with you. I wont hammer you with all of them, just the ones I'm currently reading, from pg 111-123, a mere 12 pages, a fraction of the book's length.

pg 111 - 125mg/ml stated in question, changed to 125mg/2ml in the solution on pg 112.
pg 115 question #2 - 200mg/ml, changed to 250mg/ml in solution on pg 519.
pg 115 question #9 - 250mg/5ml, changed to 125mg/ml in solution on pg 520.
pg 118 "PCTB", should be "PTCB" (come on editor, it was in caps and it's the subject of your book)
pg 119 "adult dose of a drug is 2m/kg", should be 2mg/kg
pg 123 question #9 - the solution is suppose to use clark's rule: (wgt of child/150pd * adult dose), not young's rule: (age of child/(age + 12) * adult dose), instead they use a combo of both: 25lb/(25lb +150lb) * dose. Wrong!

At first I was very angry with the errors in this book, but I went through a 12 step program: anger, denial, blame, resentment, ... and finally acceptance. And in the end, I love this book! It's sheer genius! The author and editor piss you off so much you double check all their work, writing down all their errors, rewriting it online to share with you, and commiting it all to long term memory!

It's all I can do to refrain from giving this book 5 stars. I only gave it 3 for that rare reader who doesn't have the time to edit the book like I did.

Great book for your library

This PDR is really good info for Herbals, but I was expecting some recent info on supplements as well. It seems there isnt really one reliable source for Herbals and Supplements, so be prepared to buy an additional book.

Here it is in a form that can be used for scientific papers! No longer can all the "other" drugs (you know: The ones that have been used for centuries before Pfizer.)claim legitimacy via the PDR. Now there is room for what has worked in the rest of the world.

Great reference and takes the voodoo out of some of the "Natural cure" claims.

In my interest in learning and understanding the medicinal qualities and uses of herbs for my own personal use (and without any formal medical training), I've purchased many books on 'herbal medicine' and 'homeopathic medicines/remedies'. While there are some good books out there, there is NOTHING I've come across that is as complete as this reference book (4th Edition, 2007).

Some of the most exciting parts of this book for me have been the color photos of the plants (and not just a black and white sketch, or lack thereof, included with some of my other books), the description of the medicinal PARTS of the plant, the pharmacology of plant, and the references (or literature citations) provided that allow me to research further on my own.

This PDR provides you with:

1) An ALPHABETICAL INDEX (in the front): Lists all scientific and common names found in the herbal monographs.

2) THERAPEUTIC CATEGORY INDEX (i.e. acne preparations. migraine preparations, to wound care products): Groups herbs by therapeutic or medicinal category. Listings are alphabetical by category and accepted common name. Herbs deemed effective by Commission E are flagged for quick reference.

3) INDICIATIONS INDEX (i.e. abdominal cramps, relief of flatulance, to superficial wounds): Lists herbs by their primary indications. Entries are alphabetical by indication and accepted common name. Herbs deemed effective by Commission E are specially flagged.

4) HOMEOPATHIC INDICATIONS INDEX(i.e. aches, muscular, induction of sleep, to relief of symptomatic wheezing): Catalogs herbal applications in homepathy. Entries are alphabetical by indication and scientific name.

5) ASIAN INDICATIONS INDEX: Groups herbs by their thereuptic uses in Chinese and Indian medicine. Listings are alphabetical by indication and accepted common name, with the scientific name shown in parentheses.

6) SIDE EFFECTS INDEX: Groups herbs by the adverse reactions with which they have been associated. Listings are alphabetical by indication and accepted common name, with the scientific name shown in parentheses.

7) DRUG/HERB INTERACTIONS GUIDE: Lists problem combinations alphabetically by the name of the drug and the name of the interacting herb, and provides a brief description of each combination's potential effect.

8) SAFETY GUIDE: Lists herbs that must be avoided while pregnant or nursing, and herbs that should be used only under professional supervision. Includes scientific and common names.

9) COMMON HERBAL TERMINOLOGY: Provides familiar, as well as less common terms that appear in scientific literature regarding herbal medicines.

10) HERB IDENTIFICATION GUIDE: Permits rapid, positive identification of botanicals. Includes over 300 full-color photos.

11) HERBAL MONOGRAPHS: Profiles of more than 700 medicinal herbs, including description, actions, clinical trials, indications, contraindications, precautions, drug interactions, adverse effects, overdosage, dosage, and literature citations. Organized alphabetically by accepted common name and cross-referenced with scientific name.

12) NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENT MONOGRAPHS: Profiles some of the most common supplements, including description, actions, clinical trials, indications, contraindications, precautions, drug interactions, adverse effects, overdosage, dosage, and literature citations. Organized alphabetically by accepted common name.

Anyone serious about learning and understanding the wonderful amd natural healing properties of herbs, NEEDS to include this reference manual in your library. The foreward by David Herber, Professor of Medicine an dPublic Health, Director, UCLA Center for Human Nutrition and UCKA Botanical Research Center, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA) explains it all.

I hope this book is as helpful for you as it has been for me.

This book has a lot of good research in it. For instance, the herb milk thistle has a "renoprotective effect on kidney cells damaged by acetaminophen..." It has not however been proven to help with cirrhosis of the liver. It can also cause side effects such as severe sweating, abdominal cramping, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

The study on aloe and psoriasis showed that 83% the patients that applied the cream topically 3 times a day for 5 consecutive days for 4 weeks had reduced or no psoriasis signs while only 6.6% of the placebo groups did.

Bilberry patients with diabetic retinopathy improved 77% to 90%. This study did not make a comparison to the placebo group unfortunately. High doses and prolonged use have lead to chronic intoxication, and high doses to animals have been fatal.

A study with black cohosh showed that 80% of women experiencing menopausal symptoms improved or resolved. Adverse reactions for black cohosh have included gastroenteritis, nausea, and vomiting.

It was found that treatment with capsicum (same as cayenne) prior to aspirin administration significantly decreased gastric mucosal damage as compared with aspirin alone. There is however significant correlation between consumption of hot pepper and gastric cancer. They recommend usage be kept at 2 days and should only be used again after two weeks. This is an example where most herablist would disagree. So they provided some good research (the information on asprin) but I question their recommendation.

Goldenseal showed an average cancer cell kill of 91% for malignant brain tumors compared to 43% for the standard chemotherapeutic agent for brain tumors.

There are numerous other studies providing interesting information, this is just a few of them.

I was not sure if I would like this mainstream reference book. But I have been pleasantly surprised. It has a lot of good research in it, enough that I started tearing out pages of my most commonly used herbs. I highlight them, then place them in a binder for quick reference.

It is very critical of ephedra, which is no doubt a controversial herb. But like all things, when used carefully and correctly it can be a powerful herb for certain indications.

It is also highly critical of bladderwrack, saying it shouldn't be used because of the possible heavy metal contamination. Any seaweed, just like any fish, can have that problem. But iodine is extremely important for healthy thyroid function and the best source is seaweed. Bladderwrack is one source of seaweed, but there's also Irish moss, dulse, kelp, and chlorella to name a few others.

Today I was looking for pau d'arco, and it's not in the book. I looked under lapacho, taheebo, ipe roxo, and tecoma. I was really surprised they had not included such an important cancer and tumor herb.

But, all that being said, it is an excellent reference book, it just isn't the only reference book. I have yet to find a reference book that gives me all the information I need on herbs and supplements. But the ones I keep on my shelf, such as this one, do provide interesting and educational information.

I bought this book some time ago, way cheaper, and the CD worked fine with Windows XP, but that's not the case with Vista; you can only see part of the question, which obviously makes it hard to guess the answer. It's pretty frustrating. I tried the compatibility wizard and a few other tricks to no avail. I emailed the company and this was their reply:

From: Delmar Help (delmar.help@cengage.com)
Hello,

This software is not compatible with newer versions of Windows such as Windows Vista. It was made in 2005 when Vista was not released.

Regards

Matthew
Technical Support
Cengage Learning, Delmar
Monday - Friday, 8:30am to 5:30pm EST
800.648.7450 Menu Option #5, Option #2

nothing else, no fixes, updates or anything. It doesn't say so anywhere.

I found this book to be the single, most helpful, tool in preparing for my Certification exam.

I have six and a half years experience as a hospital pharmacy technician. This book is absolutely worthless. He focuses on things that are not that important and breezes through the stuff that time should actually be spent on. As far as the review test, one of the questions is, "What is the most important duty of a pharmacy technician?" Two of the options were filling prescriptions and protecting themselves and other from bio-hazardous materials. I chose the obvious one, filling prescriptions. Apparently, my job description has been changed to human bio-hazard shield. I hate you Jahangir Moini.

This is easily one of the most difficult to use textbooks I've ever had the misfortune of studying.

Many review questions are confusing or badly worded, both in the book and on the practice exams on the CD. On some review questions, the subject is never even brought up in the text, sending me to Google to find the answer or guessing the best I can. Also, some topics seemed unnecessary to know, or were repeated. Very confusing and frustrating!

I have been teaching an introduction to pharmacy technician class at a local community college for year and a half. I recently attempted an advanced class to prepare students for the national pharmacy technician certification exam and used this book, along with the main text. I'm glad I had enough experience and knowledge ahead of time, because I was constantly editing and correcting information. I can't give specific items that were incorrect, because there were too many flaws for which to keep track! Some of the pharmacology is incorrect, which include drugs being placed in the wrong drug class or spelled wrong. The information in this book sometimes contradicted the information in the main text, which is "supposed" to be a companion book. This book was nearly exactly the same as the full-text version, except that it was slightly condensed and some information was different. The answer key was absolutely horrible. Every chapter had at least one, if not many incorrect answers, making it difficult for students to double check their work, or feel good about their answers. Much of the information was way too advanced for pharmacy technicians to know. If the author had gotten down to the basics, there may have been less mistakes. Another weak point is that there was not a very useful math/calculations review. Most students need extra help on the advanced calculations, and this book did not help at all. The exam seems to be quite heavy on the pharmaceutical calculations. I believe all my students did pass the exam, but it was not due to the quality of this text. I will not use this book again, and am scouting for a decent text. Let me know if you find one.

The book has all essential facts that you should know to proceed further. If you did poorly in school, get this book to get back on the track. Easy to read, a starting point.

I found this to be a very good review book. I used a lot of different books in studying for step 1 and step 2. This book reads quickly. It is well organized and presents information in a different format than in First Aid. If you really know your stuff, you could use this as a sole resource in studying for the test. I used this in conjunction with blueprints, boards and wards, and First Aid for step 2. Scored over 250 on all 3 steps.

I think you could probably study this book + First Aid and work some kaplan q-bank questions and do very very well.

I bought this book early in the year hoping to use it over the course of several months as a very basic review. With Step 2 only 2 months away I've finally decided to cut my losses and get Crush the Boards. Pharmacology is particularly weak, the text is too basic and too much space and energy is wasted on their little icons for diagnostics, prevention, etc. If you're only going to buy one book, this is not it.

This is by far the most outstanding boards review book I have encountered. It breaks down the subject matter into digestible pieces that are easy to interconnect and remember. It is a great framework by which many of the details from clinical and preclinical years can be review. I used this book for all three steps and scored highly. I cannot recommend this book more stongly. Buy this book! The authors are obviously highly knowledgable in both the basic science and clinical aspects necessary to produce a high quality medical board review.

I bought this book at the beginning of my third year, and I have been finding it to be an exceedingly useful and handy resource for quick reviews and getting up to speed for new rotations. It provides a lot of information in a format that is very accessible, easy to read, and easy to remember. I highly recommend this book for people at all levels of their medical training.

I have not read this one specifically, but I attempted to read his first book after it was published. A friend worked with him & brought it to me to look at. I could find an error on every page in the book. Mostly, the errors were grammatical, as English is not his first language, but there were also medication-based errors as well. These were quite serious and would lead a test taker to get an answer wrong. Manan was not phased by the errors and just asked me to make all the corrections for him. I actually started to do this, but about 1/4 of the way through, I gave up because I felt as if I had re-written the book for him.

Hi friends,

I really enjoyed of reading this book. It has lots of drug information and calculations. It has some typo errors, but i will highly recommended every one to buy this book. It was very useful. I passed my exam in this july. Best of luck to you all.

This book is nothing but a long list of meds. It's good if you want to learn what category a med falls into, but as far as learning for the Pharm Tech Exam, it's a waste of money. I'm not even gonna get into the number of gramatical errors that were present. I'm not trying to be rude, but whoever wrote this book doesn't deserve the title "R.Ph" if they can't write a complete sentence that makes sense. I'm not even lying when I say that half of the sentences written don't make sense. And apparently the word "law" is spelled "low" and one kilogram equals 1000 miligrams (which we all know should be 1000 grams).

I personally wasn't impressed with this book, mostly because it was difficult to understand. (...)

I'm sorry I spent 35 dollars on this book. Not only is it filled with grammatical errors such as "To take permit to destroy the Controlled drugs, one should be filled it out DEA form" it also has many mathmatical errors as well. I only give it one star because it has a useful list of drugs in the beginning sorted by class. Overall, I was disappointed

Very good seller to deal with. Can't say enough good things, will buy again in the future

This book is intense, it is a great study guide, however, doesn't go into a great deal of detail in teaching. The CD that comes with it is also helpful in studying. I really like it and am glad that I bought it.

This book is OKAY. The practice questions are good, but it isn't very thorough on actually teaching. If you only need practice problems then this is a good book, but if you don't know the information and need to be taught don't buy this book. If you need to learn the information I'd buy two books written by Mark Johnston which are The Exam Review and Pharmacy Calculations. They actually teach step by step. There also were several erros in this book. They did a very poor job of proof reading. There are tons of spelling errors. Also, there is several places where there is wrong information. For example in in the list of the most common drugs it states the wrong generic names for the some of the drugs, but when you get to the practice questions it has them correct. I passed the test, but I would credit it to the other books that I used. I only used this one for the practice questions.

There are no anwsers available for the text or workbook - So if you're hoping to be able to use the workbook as a tool for self assessment as to whether you're on track or not - this is not the book to be using!
Lots of filler, as an instructor, not a book I would choose for my students

I have been involved with Pharmacy for over 20 years and teach a pharmacy tech program here in the California area.
First, after teaching for 12 years, I have NEVER encountered a book without typos. Unfortunate? Sure, but it is the way it is.
This is the BEST book to review for the PTCE. Period. My key word here is REVIEW. This is NOT a book to get a beginner started.
Many of my students who used this book reported similar and identical questions ON the PTCE.
I own six PTCE review books. This, by far, is the best and is strongly suggested for each of my students.
This should NOT be the ONLY source of study for the PTCE.
People who wait until last minute and cram for the PTCE and then write negative things about review books have noone else to blame but themselves.
As I said, ALL books have errors. Does this book have an average amount? No. Probably about 5% above average and could and should have been proof-read better. But I won't let that pull me back from the 5-star rating. This book is worth every penny.
The CD-ROM exams (same as those printed in the book) are an excellent way to prepare for the exam. Use them on tutorial mode initialy as the answers are explained well.

Good luck to all of you & do yourself a favor & get this book.

the book is very organized with very good and comprehensive information, it has few mistakes. Unfortunately the book is not well glued, and whenever i flip a page it separates from the book..!!!

I used this book and some school notes but mainly just this book and I passed my NAPLEX.

This book has very good content, however the binding is so poor, it falls out after the 2nd you open it.

I teach pharmacy at a medium-sized private college of pharmacy and see my students pouring over the review books every year. I believe this one gives students a level of depth that is similar to the NAPLEX exam itself. So many books I see give you these crazy hospital-based scenarios that NAPLEX would never expect. The focus of the exam is minimal competency and this book really does a good job at hitting the points that every pharmacy student should know. Things like why you shouldn't give aspirin to children with a cold, etc. Other books seem to scare the students to death unnecessarily.

Yes it's true, the book is not bound well. The papers fly out as you turn them. Overall, the print is pretty large, easy for review, except for the endless lists of drugs that we need to memorize. The same questions on the cd are in the book, so the cd's no big deal.

Ari

Great for your library and a must for the advance herbist!

The PDR has always been a uniquely important source. However, in various respects the format has been problematic, as some of us have noted. I assume we were not alone -- we were probably just a few voices among many. And happily, it looks like perhaps the publisher and its fellow parties have listened.

In past reviews I noted the difficulty in finding certain sections -- for example, "Drug Interactions." I mentioned that boldface headings would be helpful. And I see that for at least the last couple of years, this has indeed been done. Bravo!! -- a very welcome improvement. (I have been slow to notice this change. My apologies!)

But other problems remain. For example, side effects in most cases are divided between two or more different sections of each article. And various important things are still hard to find. How often have you wanted to find "half-lives" of a medication and perhaps its metabolites, and how often have you actually found them?? They are there, but they're buried. Something as important as this should certainly be highlighted in some way.

The "Foreword" explains that the PDR is constrained in its content: various aspects are required to be "same in language and emphasis" as the approved labeling for the products (including such things as use of boldface). But look -- the boldface was indeed added where mentioned above. I imagine this means it was also done on the product-labeling, probably in response to many voices that were raised. Perhaps the publisher could add its voice to further the efforts along such lines.

There are some seeming flaws that clearly aren't the fault of the publisher and are probably unavoidable. For example, despite the fact that seemingly anything and everything is mentioned as a possible side effect for every medication, common side effects sometimes are not mentioned at all. This reflects mainly failures of the medical literature, not a failure of this publisher, because if a side effect isn't mentioned prominently in the literature, understandably it might not find its way into the PDR. Secondly, oftentimes some major uses for a medication are not mentioned, but this reflects the absence of official approval for those uses.

Some caveats for consumers: The listed dosage ranges for any given medication are sometimes too limited. Lower or higher dosages may be right for some people. And also, do beware of those endless lists of possible side effects. Remember that these aren't necessarily things that will happen; they only MIGHT happen. (Many of them rarely if ever are caused by the medications.) And sometimes the lists fail to include things that DO happen! If you are convinced that a medication has done something to you and it's not mentioned in the PDR, you still could very well be right. But, don't assume that something IS happening just because it's mentioned on that endless list!

The improvements in this important reference are much appreciated. And there is clear room for further improvement. Bureaucracies do not necessarily move quickly or easily, but hopefully additional progress can be made. And if indeed the publisher and its fellow parties have listened to voices such as ours, we are very grateful.

The PDR is indispensable -- I'd be lost without it -- but it's highly flawed, and I can't believe that after all these years, they can't figure it out and do a better job. I don't think it would be that hard.

Some aspects of the format are problematic. It's hard to find certain things, and often you won't see what you're looking for even if you land on the right paragraph. Some examples:

(1) For some reason, side effects are divided between two or more different sections of each article. I'm sure there's some logic to this, but it certainly isn't evident, and it makes it much harder to find out what we want to know.

(2) Some important sections -- for example, "Drug Interactions" -- are hard to find, no matter how experienced you are with the PDR. One solution would be to have boldface headings for such sections.

(3) How often have you wanted to find "half-lives" of a medication and perhaps its metabolites, and how often have you actually found them? They are there, but they're buried. Something as important as this should certainly be highlighted, perhaps in tabular form.

The sad fact is that unless you're quite persistent, you often won't find a lot of what you're looking for when you open the PDR, even though it's there.

Some other flaws are probably unavoidable. For example, despite the fact that seemingly anything and everything is mentioned as a possible side effect for every medication, common side effects sometimes are not mentioned at all. Also, oftentimes some of the major uses for a given medication are not mentioned. These problems aren't the fault of the publisher. The first reflects failures of the medical literature in general -- if a side effect isn't mentioned prominently in the literature, it might not find its way into the PDR. The second reflects the fact that many correct usages of medications are not officially approved.

Some caveats for consumers: The listed dosage ranges for any given medication are sometimes too limited. Lower or higher dosages may be right for some people. And also, do beware of those endless lists of possible side effects. Remember that these aren't necessarily things that will happen; they only MIGHT happen. (Many of them rarely if ever happen, at least in terms of their being caused by the medications.) And sometimes the lists fail to include things that DO happen! If you are convinced that a medication has done something to you and it's not mentioned in the PDR, you still could very well be right. But, don't assume that something IS happening just because it IS mentioned on that endless list!

It's hard to express a simple overall assessment of the PDR. The book is an important reference, but it's hard to understand that the publisher hasn't figured out how to do a better job. Maybe they'll read this page and finally do it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

There are a lot of drug reference books. Many, if not most, are quite good. It depends more on how you like your information organized than anything else. The PDR is not designed to be carried in your pocket, it designed to be...well, exhaustive and filled with virtually all the data about the given drug. But regardless of what you think about the PDR, one thing is certain: The PDR has become a gold standard among practioners and is relied upon heavily by physicians.

The book is massive, but is extremely helpful and very thorough. It is the kind of reference guide that will last a long time and assist with multitude of medications we may need in life.

This Kaplan book helped me to score high on the PCAT, much higher than if I did not buy it. The materials are easy to read and study from...but you have to study and do the practice questions. Do not expect to just read it and to do well, unless you are a genius.

I took the PCAT a few weeks ago and felt more or less prepared thanks to this book. The only beef I had with it in terms of content was that the Calculus and Organic Chem reviews weren't all that thorough. Consequently, I got a few surprises on test day, since all I studied for calculus was differentiation and integration, and I made the mistake of not bothering to study the reactions for Ochem.

And yes, I did find several mistakes in this book, specifically:

p. 70, #10
p. 432, #8
p.184, #6
p.531 #4 (units should be cal/g*C, not cal/g*K)
p.686, #41, value in table should be 8x10^-3
p.682, #6
p.700, #53

I'm sure there are other mistakes, those are just the ones that I happened to mark.

This book is pathetic. While it does contain much information, it contains many errors as well. A previous reviewer was right in saying there's a mistake about every 5-10 pages. Well in a 700 page book that's alot of mistakes. Also it should be noted that these are just the mistakes we've noticed. Who knows what was in error that we didn't know about beforehand to recognize as such? Kaplan should hire an editor and people studying for the PCAT should check out some of the other study guides.

The book is one of the most awfully edited books by Kaplan. It's just one mistake after another. There are also so many chapter summary questions about topics that haven't even been mentioned. I am almost convinced that the person who wrote the chapter summary question and the person who wrote the chapter reviews are two different people who had absolutely no contact with each other. And the editor was probably sleeping.

The reason I give it two stars is because it's pretty much one of the few books for comprehensive PCAT prep. So you're pretty much stuck with it. I recommend getting it for that reason alone.

The book is structured very well but contains a major flaw every 5-10 pages. Some of the examples are worked incorrectly (p. 428, under "Definite Integrals" the equation has a '=' instead of '-') and some figures are incorrectly labeled. Everything else about the book is well-done, but I can only wonder what errors I am not picking up that are misleading me.