Overview

How do you know if the medicine you're taking is right for you? Should you worry about side effects, and, if so, how much? And how can you advocate for a loved one when it comes to being prescribed medication? In How to Take Drugs, world-renowned pharmaceutical expert Dr Nick Barber answers these questions and more, explaining how medicines actually work on your body, how they're tested, and why they are often so much less effective than you might think. Dr. Barber's clear 'Avoid, Kiss, Marry, Divorce' framework offers a practical guide for evaluating how your medication is working, and offers solutions - whether you're taking medicines now, facing a new diagnosis, or supporting others with their healthcare. This resolutely human-first approach goes on to explore why dosing instructions are so erratically followed, the placebo and nocebo effects and even how pharmaceuticals affect the planet. How to Take Drugs is not only a practical guide to making the most of your medication, but also a visionary look ahead at a future of good prescribing, and a detailed plan of how to get there. In a world full of contradictory medical information and concerns around overprescription, it is an essential, eye-opening read.

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9781035072156

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Reviews

This book will change lives. It has changed mine. * Yasmin Alibhai-Brown * A lively and empowering read, full of deftly explained science, good humour and humanity. * Dr Lucy Pollock, author of The Book About Getting Older * An important, timely and above all a very enjoyable book. . . Nick does what few writers manage in making complex and technical issues easily understood by the lay person, with a very easy style and a wry sense of humour. * Andrew Davies, former Welsh Government Minister and Chair of Swansea Bay Health Board *

Author Information

Dr. Nick Barber, Emeritus Professor of Pharmacy at UCL, is one of the world's foremost experts in the field, and recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. He developed a national service for patients starting new medicines, which is currently being used by around a million patients a year in the UK alone, and which has been copied in six countries. It's saved the NHS over £6bn so far. He also developed the national framework of good prescribing against which all GPs were measured, and his work on medication errors in care homes led to a Ministerial Summit and changes to national policy. He has published over 200 research papers and been cited over 23,000 times He also presented the BBC's Victorian Pharmacy; four x one hour programmes originally aired in 2010. The series attracted 2.6 million viewers on its first showing, was sold internationally and is still being repeated. It scores 8.1 on IMDB, and 4.6/5 on Amazon.

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