Methods in Clinical Pharmacology

"We pharmacologists must acquire a knowledge of the tools we use . . . Fortunately a surgeon who uses the wrong side of a scalpel cuts his own fingers and not the patient; if the same applied to drugs they would have been investigated very carefully a long time ago . . . More ceterum censeo is perhaps necessary in order to rouse pharmacology from its sleep. The sleep is not a natural one since pharma­ cology, as judged by its past accomplishments, has no reason for being tired. " From R. Buchheim Beiträge zur Arzneimittel/ehre, Voss, Leipzig, 1849. Chapter 1 Preface and introduction Methods, clinical pharrnacology and the clinical pharmacologist In this book are brought together the proceedings from lecures and poster-demonstrations at the International Symposium on Methods in Clinical Pharmacology held in Frankfurt, May 6th-8th 1979. The symposium provided a forum for a group of invited clinical pharmacologist to speak on a topic of their own selection. They were asked to place special emphasis on the methodological aspects of their work they considered to be important. Seventeen of the speakers came from overseas. The sym­ posium was thus an attempt to establish a methodological basis for further advancements in clinical pharmacology. This book, we hope, will be recognised as documentary evidence that this has been done. Owing to the considerable advancements that have been achieved, it may be forgotten or not realised that clinical pharmacology is a relativelyyoung discipline (7 to 10 years at the most).