Membrane Receptors and Cellular Regulation

problems of emphasis rather than fact exist. The advantages of enteral over parenteral nutritional support are mentioned only as cursory notes. In addition to protection from atrophy of the GI tract, the lower costs of enteral support mandate its use whenever possible. Similarly, the weighty ethical issues involved in hyperalimentation of the terminally ill patient are only briefly mentioned in a short introduction. In these times of increasing care of the elderly, those questions should be addressed in a systematic fashion. Nevertheless, the subject of the book is of use for clinicians of all specialities, though its high price makes its widespread dissemination doubtful. Numerous books are written that seek to explain a medically related topic to the general public. It is difficult to imagine a medical subject that is more important for the public to understand than psychoactive drugs and, quite appropriately, there are a plethora of books on the subject. Few, if any, give a better introduction to the subject than A Primer ofDrug Action. This book is loosely structured, like a pharmacology textbook. The first chapter, "Principles of Drug Action," provides an introduction to general pharmacology, with sections on drug absorption, distribution, and elimination. The author keeps his explanations as non-technical as possible, though the reader with some background in biology will be at an advantage. This chapter is complemented by an extensive appendix that provides the reader with some basic biology needed for understanding psychoactive drugs. The remainder of the volume offers chapters on each of the major groups of psychoactive drugs. These chapters include basic biology, historical background, and pharmacology. There is also a chapter on contraception that emphasizes the pharma-cology of "the pill." This well-written text includes both a glossary and a helpful bibliography. I would highly recommend the book to all those members of the general public who need or want an understanding of psychoactive substances. The text possesses a certain amount of "hipness" that may even prove beneficial to physicians who feel ill prepared in dealing with street drugs. The excellent book, Membrane Receptors and Cellular Regulation, is another in the series of collected reports from the UCLA symposia on current biological topics. The symposium on receptors was held in March 1984, and many of the papers have also been published in the Journal of Cellular Biochemistry. Recent research on the ability of peptide hormones, growth factors, and oncogenes to regulate cellular …