Pharmacology Of The Endocrine System And Related Drugs The Neurohypophysis

The authors have provided an overview of the relationships between hormones that are physiologic constituents of the body as well as their pharmacologic use in replacement therapies and related endocrine dys function. Principles of Endocrine Pharmacology concerns itself with the ther apeutic use of hormones, and hormone like substances, or drugs that can act either by suppressing or enhancing the metabolism of certain glands of internal secretion. Other drugs used for nonendocrine ther apies can likewise affect the endocrine system. Endocrine pharmacology emerged in the early 1900s with the use of crude pituitary extracts. By the mid-1900s several investigators had isolated and begun to synthesize hormones or hormonelike substances. Recognizing the limited supply of hormones that could be obtained both from animal sources and human autopsy material, the search for so called hormone substitutes also began early in the 1900s. Recently, re combinant DNA technologies have been used to provide alternative therapeutic sources of human insulin and human growth hormone. Aside from insulin, perhaps no other use of hormonally-active sub stance is better exemplified by those drugs which affect fertility. The synthesis of an orally-effective steroid represented one of the first major breakthroughs in the chemical suppression of ovulation. Since the orally active 19-norsteroids were introduced in the 1950s, several oral contra ceptive steroid preparations have been marketed. Indeed, the advent of oral contraceptives for birth control has led to a renewed interest in endocrine pharmacology.

A 1981 treatment of the action and uses of the hormones and drugs that influence endocrine functions in the body as seen by a pharmacologist. The book includes a description of available drug preparations and expected therapeutic responses, and an examination of their side effects and interactions with other drugs. Special emphasis is placed on how such drugs and hormones work and on how their biological effects are related to their chemical structures. The physiological background to the practical significance of such substances is given for both a healthy and a diseased state. The book assumes little prior knowledge of endocrinology or pharmacology.

First multi-year cumulation covers six years: 1965-70.

Annotation. Specialist Periodical Reports provide systematic and detailed review coverage of progress in the major areas of chemical research. Written by experts in their specialist fields the series creates a unique service for the active research chemist, supplying regular critical in-depth accounts of progress in particular areas of chemistry. For over 80 years the Royal Society of Chemistry and its predecessor, the Chemical Society, have been publishing reports charting developments in chemistry, which originally took the form of Annual Reports. However, by 1967 the whole spectrum of chemistry could no longer be contained within one volume and the series Specialist Periodical Reports was born. The Annual Reports themselves still existed but were divided into two, and subsequently three, volumes covering Inorganic, Organic and Physical Chemistry. For more general coverage of the highlights in chemistry they remain a 'must'. Since that time the SPR series has altered according to the fluctuating degree of activity in various fields of chemistry. Some titles have remained unchanged, while others have altered their emphasis along with their titles; some have been combined under a new name whereas others have had to be discontinued. The current list of Specialist Periodical Reports can be seen on the inside flap of this volume.