Comprehensive and valuable introductory text
‘Introduction to neuropsychopharmacology’, by Leslie L. Iversen, Susan D. Iversen, Floyd E. Bloom and Robert H. Roth. Pp x+531. Price £25.99. New York: Oxford University Press Inc; 2009. ISBN 978 0 19 538053 8
This is a valuable and comprehensive introductory text to the science of the nervous system, with insightful commentary on receptors, neurotransmitters, neuromodulators and pharmacological manipulation of the central nervous system.
Although this is the first edition (leading on from the eighth edition of ‘Biochemical basis of neuropharmacology’), it has a good style and flow that is more commonly associated with a later, more finessed edition.
The text is both user-friendly and intuitive, and suitable for graduate students in the biological sciences, as well as any medical students or professionals who wish to understand neuroscience, or undergraduates with a particular interest in the field.
The final review sections of each chapter are particularly helpful in either preparing the reader for the next chapter or refreshing knowledge recently gained. The text does not contain as many of the precise details about the areas it covers as one might expect from such a book.
It does, however, present a good selection of further reading, and the clarity of the text is improved by many well produced and clear diagrams. The sections on disorders and commonly used psychoactive drugs, particularly those about cannabis, alcohol and nicotine, are interesting, although not as complete as they could be.
Overall, this is an informative book that could be recommended to provide basic knowledge in the field and stimulate further reading.
B. J. Whalley is lecturer in pharmacology at the University of Reading
