Principles of Paediatric Pharmacology

Pharmacology is fundamental for therapeutics. This is well recognised in the field of internal medicine, for which pharmacological textbooks abound. Paediatric pharmacology however, has largely been viewed as a subsection of general medicine. This is incorrect: it should be seen as a separate and important entity. This book is written from the viewpoint of a paediatrician, but it is addressed to all who have responsibility for the care of children, parti­ cularly physicians and pharmacists. As the latter may lack familiarity with certain diseases of children, I have added a clinical appendix in certain pertinent areas. My approach in each chapter has been to show the interdependence of physiology and pharmacology. Thus I make no apology for providing a physiological review for most topics. Each chapter is reasonably self-contained. I have presumed that a majority of readers will most often go directly to that section relevant to their immediate requirements, and therefore I have sometimes had to restate important points in more than one place. Nevertheless, for the cover­ to-cover reader, there will not be an excess of repetition. Since this is not a textbook of adult therapeutics, there will be no discussion of such things as coronary vasodilators. Likewise, the obstetric pharmacology of parturition has been omitted, although I have thoroughly covered the pharmacological problems of the fetus and the infant. I am greatly obliged to generations of my students, both under­ graduate and postgraduate.