8 Best Pharmacokinetics Textbooks (2024 Review)

If you’re a medical or pharmacy student that has to study pharmacokinetics and you’re serious about getting good grades, then you should be looking for nothing less than the best pharmacokinetics textbook on the market.

For you, they will be of great benefit. These books will break down the concepts of the subject as well as explain key areas that you might miss out on if you go for a low-quality text.

Right here, we have carefully handpicked and reviewed the best pharmacokinetics textbooks available on the market.

best pharmacokinetics textbooks

1. Rowland and Tozer’s Clinical Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics

 

Rowland and Tozer’s Clinical Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics break the complexities of the specialty using a simple structure that explains the relationship between drug administration and drug response. Updated with the latest clinical advances, the book avoids sciences and mathematics and takes a conceptual approach that emphasizes clinical application. This ensures that the text is brought to a real-life perspective allowing you to better understand and evaluate drug applications.

The text also contains key updates that reflect the advances in today’s world as related to clinical decision-making and drug research and development. It also places an emphasis on the clinical relevance of drugs which should come in handy to students preparing for a career in clinical practice.

To promote understanding, the book makes use of hundreds of graphs and tables as well as new and updated examples. You will also find more than 200 carefully written study questions with in-depth explanations the help with retaining key information.

The latest edition includes some interactive online simulations to give students practice using different pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic models. There is also an eBook format that gives you 24/7 access, the ability to highlight and share notes, and provides fully searchable tools.

  • Authors: Hartmut Derendorf Ph.D., Dr. Stephan Schmidt Ph.D
  • Publisher: LWW
  • Current edition: 5th edition (August 2019)
  • Pages: 864 pages

2. Applied Biopharmaceutics & Pharmacokinetics

 

Authored by Leon Shargel and Andrew Yu, this landmark textbook on the theoretical and practical applications of biopharmaceutics and pharmacokinetics has been updated to explain the latest practices on how to detect clinical pharmacokinetics problems while applying basic pharmacokinetics principles to solve them. It will help you evaluate biopharmaceutics studies involving drug product equivalency and unequivalency.

Each chapter has been revised to reflect the latest clinical perspectives on drug performance and drug therapy as well as other topics on bioavailability, bioequivalence, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics.

While this book also dives into the complex topics, it starts out with the basics of the discipline and provides practical problems and clinical examples with discussion in each chapter to help you apply principles in real-life situations.

This text will coach you on how to use raw data and formulate the pharmacokinetic models that best describe the process of drug absorption, distribution, and elimination.

  • Authors: Leon Shargel, Andrew Yu
  • Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education / Medical
  • Current edition: 7th edition (August 2015)
  • Pages: 928 pages

3. Clinical Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics: Concepts And Applications

 

Updated to reflect the increasing body of knowledge linking the two concepts, Clinical Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics: Concepts And Applications takes an in-depth approach towards explaining the relationship between drug administration and drug response.

The updated version reflects the advances in our understanding of the molecular and mechanistic response levels of all the processes controlling the pharmacokinetics of drugs

The textbook comes packed with many relevant examples that make it easy to understand. Unlike other texts, the math is well explained which makes it easier to comprehend and recollect. However, you might not have little luck finding the information you need right away so the book doesn’t make for the best reference guide to have.

This time, there is a companion website that includes the full text online for students who want to find information on the go. There are also interactive simulations for student practice featuring different pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic models.

  • Authors: Malcolm Rowland, Thomas N. Tozer
  • Publisher: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
  • Current edition: 4th edition (January 2010)
  • Pages: 839 pages

4. Winter’s Basic Clinical Pharmacokinetics

 

Winter’s Basic Clinical Pharmacokinetics is one of the leading textbooks on the concepts and aspects of pharmacokinetics and therapeutic drug monitoring. This material is designed to enable students and health professionals to apply these concepts to patient care.

It comes in an easy-to-read, case-study format that encourages quick assimilation. Divided into two parts, Part I review the basic pharmacokinetic principles, and Part II illustrates the clinical applications of these principles in common problems.

This text provides an extensive explanation that emphasizes all major concepts and accompanies complex equations with figures to help visualize the concepts and promote better understanding.

This edition adds new chapters that reflect modern trends including aspects of drug dosing in renal disease, pharmacogenomics, pediatric considerations, including antifungal and expansion of the cytotoxic and immunosuppressant therapies. The material also includes new information and cases that address pediatric considerations and pharmacogenomics as well as the clinical use of serum drug concentrations.

  • Author: Prof. Paul Beringer PharmD
  • Publisher: LWW
  • Current edition: 6th edition (November 2017)
  • Pages: 624 pages

5. Introduction To Pharmacokinetics And Pharmacodynamics: The Quantitative Basis Of Drug Therapy

 

Introduction To Pharmacokinetics And Pharmacodynamics: The Quantitative Basis Of Drug Therapy is written for students and healthcare professionals to help them master the fundamentals of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. The book pools the knowledge of distinguished international experts and provides readers with a concise overview of the basic principles underlying the establishment and individualization of dosage regimens and their optimal use in drug therapy.

To ensure it passes on accurate information, the book makes use of up-to-date examples featuring presently prescribed drugs to illustrate how pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics relate to contemporary drug therapy.

The first section provides an insight into input-exposure relationships and exposure-response relationships. The second section goes into details on exposure and response after a single dose. Other sections cover therapeutic regimens and many other aspects of both fields.

At the end of each chapter are study problems to help students and professionals better understand the material covered within the text.

  • Author: Tozer
  • Publisher: Lippincott Wolter
  • Current edition: (January 2012)

6. Applied Clinical Pharmacokinetics

 

For pharmacy students looking for a comprehensive guide on the clinical application of pharmacokinetics, Applied Clinical Pharmacokinetics provides the right tools and knowledge they will need in the field. Each chapter in the book provides samples that will come in handy as well as tons of practical problems that students will have to answer. The correct answers can be found at the back of the book to help students score themselves.

The entire text focuses on the latest standardized techniques and approaches to patient-specific dosing and provides updated information on recent monitored drugs.

To ensure that the material is easy to comprehend, the text uses clear language to cover key issues including a concise summary of pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic concepts.

It also provides updated and essential information on drug dosing in special populations that information practitioners will find useful on drug categories such as antibiotics, anticonvulsants, cardiovascular agents, and immunosuppressants.

  • Author: Larry Bauer
  • Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education / Medical
  • Current edition: 3rd edition (August 2014)
  • Pages: 880 pages

7. Concepts in Clinical Pharmacokinetics

 

Understanding the science of pharmacokinetics is made easy for pharmacy students and practitioners in the Concepts in Clinical Pharmacokinetics. This book simplifies the essential aspects of the subject to reflect the current practice.

Within the book, you will find the latest information and insights on concepts through extensive use of correlates, figures, and review questions. The entire text features 15 easy-to-follow lessons, practice quizzes to help chart progress, enhanced discussion of hemodialysis, a phenytoin cheat sheet to help you through the calculations max.

There are also new vancomycin cases based on higher desired vancomycin levels and trough-only dose estimations. The final additional are factors to consider when choosing a dosing body weight for various equations.

  • Author: Robin Southwood
  • Publisher: American Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists
  • Current edition: 7th edition (October 2018)
  • Pages: 290 pages

8. Clinical Pharmacokinetics

 

Just like many other textbooks on the subject, Clinical Pharmacokinetics has been updated to include the most current information on the concepts and topics related to pharmacokinetics. However, this material differs from many options you will find on the market in several ways. It provides information that will be easy for a beginner to study and understand. The format should ensure that you’re able to grasp the knowledge within the book very quickly and retain the information without having to go through the pages over and over again. The writing style features numerous charts and lists that make complicated dosing and monitoring information easy to find and understand.

It also provides current information on key issues such as rational use of drugs concentration measurements, considerations for a wider variety of drugs for special populations, changes in dosing obese patients.

The new edition includes a new chapter that focuses on pharmacogenomics and its impact on pharmacokinetic parameters. It also covers the impact of pharmacogenomics, pediatric, obese, and geriatric dosing.

  • Author: American Society of Health-System Pharmacists
  • Publisher: American Society of Health-System Pharmacists
  • Current edition: 6th edition (May 2017)
  • Pages: 452 pages