CRC Handbook of CNS Agents and Local Anesthetics.

[trptamene]

I'd be interested in reading reviews on this book if anyone has read it, though I think there may not be many/any that have.

ACS has a review written that some of you may find useful or peak your interests in said book.

CRC=Chemical Rubber Company

CRC Handbook of CNS Agents and Local Anesthetics.
Edited by Matthew Verderame. CRC, Boca Raton, Florida.
1986. 378 pp. 18 X 26 cm. ISBN 0-8493-3288-5. $125.00.
The 10 chapters of this volume of the CRC series in medicinal
chemistry are selected to represent a systematic collection of
chemical and pharmacological reference data drawn from therapeutically
important drugs. However, this edition appears to
confirm the saying which states that, the larger the number of
contributors to a monograph, the further out-of-date its references
are on the date of publication. The 19 contributors from both
industry and academia seem to rely predominantly on references
from the late 1970s with a cut-off at 1981. Having said this, I
must also admit that in several of the chapters more frequent use
of recent literature references probably would have added little
of interest, e.g. those covering the local anesthetics and the
barbiturates. There are, however, also creditable merits which
deserve to be mentioned. The editor is to be commended for the
compilation of interesting topics such as mechanism of action,
structure-activity relationships, pharmacokinetics, metabolism,
and toxicity of each class of agents. This information is usually
not found together in an informative and easy to read fashion.
Other valuable features are the IUPAC names and the physical-
chemical properties of specific agents. This makes the book
valuable and justifies the use of the work “Handbook” in the title.
General Anesthetics by Jacoby gives an in-depth review of the
most frequently used anesthetic agents, their discovery, and
physical theory of their anesthetic action. Barbiturates by Kotun
and Alvin summarizes the pharmacological and pharmacokinetic
parameters of this important class of hypnotics. Nonbarbiturate
Sedatives and Hypnotics by Boisse and Neumeyer review the
benzodiazepines with emphasis on their risk for induction of
tolerance, physical dependence, and other safety aspects. Antipsychotic
Agents by Vida and Tenthorey tries to cover the topic
in 50 pages, most of these devoted to butyrophenones or phenothiazines.
The contributors seem to feel uneasy about the
dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia. They have chosen no less
than nine pages and four figures to illustrate various aspects of
this hypothesis. A third of this material would have been sufficient.
Outdated facts, such as “selective antagonists for D-1
receptors have not been found” (p 85), should have been revised.
Antianxiety Agents by Vida and Essery gives a review divided
into eight classes based upon the chemical structure of the agents.
This chapter also gives a detailed presentation of the function
of the benzodiazepine receptor a.lsd its interaction with the GABA
receptor. Neuromuscular Disorder Drugs by Neumeyer and
Boisse deals with antiparkinson agents and skeletal muscle relaxants.
Narcotic Analgesics and Antitussive Agents by Eissenstat
and Michne reviews the opiates and their antagonists. A
valuable section on the enkephalins is included in this chapter.
Antidepressants by Hlasta, Haubrich, and Luttinger gives an
excellent compilation of both tricyclic and atypical antidepressant
agents. In particular, the various metabolic fates of the tricyclics
are presented in structure schemes for easy comprehension by
the chemist reader. Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors by Ho and
Kralik is another thorough review of what was known on this topic
before 1982. Structures of recently developed selective inhibitors
of MAO-A and MAO-B are included, however, which makes this
chapter a valuable reference. Hallucinogens by Nichols reviews
the ergolines, the phenethylamines, the tryptamines, the phenylcyclohexylamines,
and the tetrahydrocannabinols. Local
Anesthetic Agents by Adams, Ronfield, and Takman gives an
interesting section on the history of the development of these drugs
as well as an in-depth account on their mechanism of action,
structureactivity relationship, metabolism and pharmacokinetics,
and toxicity, the common theme for all chapters. In my opinion,
this volume serves well as a handbook despite the previously
mentioned shortcomings.
Chemistry Department Tomas de Paulis
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, Tennessee 37235