Human Drug Metabolism, An Introduction, Second Editionprovides an accessible introduction to the subject and will beparticularly invaluable to those who already have someunderstanding of the life sciences. Completely revised and updatedthroughout, the new edition focuses only on essential chemicaldetail and includes patient case histories to illustrate theclinical consequences of changes in drug metabolism and its impacton patient welfare. After underlining the relationship between efficacy, toxicityand drug concentration, the book then considers how metabolizingsystems operate and how they impact upon drug concentration, bothunder drug pressure and during inhibition. Factors affecting drugmetabolism, such as genetic polymorphisms, age and diet arediscussed and how metabolism can lead to toxicity is explained. Thebook concludes with the role of drug metabolism in the commercialdevelopment of therapeutic agents as well as the pharmacology ofsome illicit drugs.