While palliative care has adopted a holistic approach to treatment, medication driven symptom management ostensibly forms the critical aspect of care. Prescribing in palliative care can be extremely complex because the patient may often have comorbidity, or occasionally multimorbidity. The associated polypharmacy further complicates the pharmacological management of symptoms being caused by the palliative condition. This can be daunting for healthcare professionals and can negatively impact upon the effectiveness of care provided. Fully revised and updated, the third edition of Drugs in Palliative Care provides an accessible and succinct overview of the main drugs that are encountered in palliative care clinical practice. The text begins by providing a clinical pharmacology overview and prescribing guidance, then contains over 160 monographs of palliative care drugs, in an easy to access A-Z format.

Review from previous edition I like the handy pocket-size and the drug monographs are organised in an easy-to-use A-Z format. This book would be very useful as a quick reference on any palliative care unit. * IAHPC Newsletter *

Dr Andrew Dickman is the Consultant Pharmacist for Palliative Care at the Academic Palliative and End of Life Care Centre, Royal Liverpool University Hospital. He is an honorary Fellow at the University of Liverpool and Honorary Lecturer at the School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University. He has been recently designated as a Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society for his distinction in the Profession of Pharmacy. As well as numerous papers, Dr Dickman has authored two essential palliative care textbooks, both being highly commended by the BMA.