Main description:

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.

Contents:

1. Introduction; 2. Basic principles of pharmacology in relation to the endocrine function; 3. The pituitary gland; 4. The thyroid gland; 5. Steroid hormones: introduction; 6. The adrenal glands; 7. The endocrinology and pharmacology of reproduction; 8. The Islets of Langerhans; 9. Calcemic hormones: parathyroid hormone, calcitonin and vitamin D3; 10. The gastrointestinal hormones; 11. The renin-angiotensin system; References; Index.