How to Take Drugs: A New Approach to Medication for Better Results and Fewer Side Effects

'Everything you want to know about the drugs your GP prescribes (but are too trusting to ask)' - The Times magazine

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.

In a world full of contradictory medical information and concerns around over-prescription, it is an essential, eye-opening read.

'Likely to be the kind of book we should all have chained to our wrists, given the sheer amount of prescription medicines we are likely to consume in a lifetime.' - New Scientist

'This book will change lives. It has changed mine.' Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

'A lively and empowering read, full of deftly explained science, good humour and humanity.' - Dr Lucy Pollock, author of The Book About Getting Older

Dr Nick Barber, Emeritus Professor of Pharmacy at UCL, 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 a 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 changes to national policy.

He has published over 200 research papers and been cited over 23,000 times. He also presented the BBC’s Victorian Pharmacy; four x one hour programmes originally aired in 2010. The series attracted 2.6 million viewers on its first showing, was sold internationally and is still being repeated. It scores 8.1 on IMDB, and 4.6/5 on Amazon. Dr Barber is the author of How to Take Drugs.