Read by Mark Meadows, with Last Words and Dedication read by the author, Dr Nick Barber.
How do you know if the medicine you're taking is right for you?
Should you worry about side effects, and, if so, how much?
And how can you advocate for a loved one when it comes to being prescribed medication?
In How to Take Drugs, world-renowned pharmaceutical expert Dr Nick Barber answers these questions and more, explaining how medicines actually work on your body, how they're tested, and why they are often so much less effective than you might think.
Dr. Barber's clear 'Avoid, Kiss, Marry, Divorce' framework offers a practical guide for evaluating how your medication is working, and offers solutions – whether you're taking medicines now, facing a new diagnosis, or supporting others with their healthcare. This resolutely human-first approach goes on to explore why dosing instructions are so erratically followed, the placebo and nocebo effects and even how pharmaceuticals affect the planet.
How to Take Drugs is not only a practical guide to making the most of your medication, but also a visionary look ahead at a future of good prescribing, and a detailed plan of how to get there. In a world full of contradictory medical information and concerns around overprescription, it is an essential, eye-opening listen. An eye-opening, practical guide to making the most of medication, exploring how it works, why it often doesn't and how to advocate effectively for yourself and your loved ones when it comes to being prescribed.
Dr Nick Barber, Emeritus Professor of Pharmacy at University College London, is one of the world's foremost experts in the field, and recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. He developed a national service for patients starting new medicines, which is currently being used by around seven million patients a year in the UK alone, and which has been copied in six countries. It's saved the NHS over £6bn so far. He also developed the national framework of good prescribing against which all GPs were measured, and his work on medication errors in care homes led to a Ministerial Summit and significant changes to national policy.
He has published over 200 research papers and been cited over 24,000 times. He is the author of How to Take Drugs. This book will change lives. It has changed mine. A lively and empowering read, full of deftly explained science, good humour and humanity. An important, timely and above all a very enjoyable book. . . Nick does what few writers manage in making complex and technical issues easily understood by the lay person, with a very easy style and a wry sense of humour.
