Author:
Woolf Richard T.,Smith Catherine H.
Abstract
Abstract
Drug therapy offers a real opportunity to dramatically improve the lives of people suffering from skin disease. In dermatology, there has been a transformative change over the last 20 years in terms of treatment options available. An abiding principle in medicine is ‘to help, or at least to do no harm’ (Hippocrates) and it is a sobering fact that an estimated 3–6% of hospital admissions are due to adverse drug reactions and, of these, over half could have potentially been avoided. Clinical pharmacology deals with the actions, mechanisms of action, uses, adverse effects and fate of drugs in humans, and underpins all aspects of drug therapy from novel drug development through to safe, effective prescribing.