Columns published by Dr. Preskorn
Published in Journal of Psychiatric Practice
(formerly the Journal of Practical Psychiatry and Behavioral Health)

Section 1: The polypharmacology section (13 articles)

The columns in this section are concerned with the patient who is on more than one medication. This section begins with a discussion of basic principles of pharmacology that are particularly important to consider when treating such patients. Subsequent columns present cases which illustrate the application of these principles to clinical practice. Many of these case-based columns are structured so the case is presented first allowing the reader to take a moment to formulate how they might have managed the patient. The column then proceeds to review what was done followed by a discussion of the clinically important take-home points.

Section 2: Understanding the basics of antidepressant pharmacology (9 articles)

The columns in this section discuss basic pharmacologic principles relevant to understanding the mechanistically defined classes of antidepressants. It reviews: (a) the history of antidepressant pharmacology from a developmental perspective eight classes, (b) the meaning of selectivity and specificity, (c) the extrapolation from in vitro binding affinity to different targets to clinical action, and (d) summarizes the clinical pharmacology of antidepressants as determined by formal clinical trials.

Section 3: The rationale for and clinical implications of dose-response curves (5 articles)

Section 4: Modern drug development and the Human Genome Project (8 articles)

This series of columns is devoted to how drugs are developed and how that will likely change as a result of the Human Genome Project.