Pharmcards: Review Cards for Medical Students 4th ed. Edition

I'm a second year medical student-- bought these as an aid for my current Pharmacology class. I also bought a pack of skinny sharpie markers (assorted colors) to highlight. I highly recommend buying those markers with these cards as normal pen will definitely smear since these cards are pretty glossy. It comes with an index that lists all the drugs and what card # they are on which is extremely convenient-- the cards are in numerical order and organized by category, so it's easy to look up and then find the drug you need. Very easy, very informative, and written in short hand with arrows-- just like I would write. Love them!

I've been working my way through these as a refresher in advance of my school's dedicated Step 1 study period. They start off with several cards reviewing basic pharmacodynamics (equations for volume of distribution, half-life, etc.) and then a set of drug class cards (quick way to review mechanisms of, say, all the important antimicrobial drugs or all the anticoagulants). The rest of the deck is individual drug flashcards organized by system (e.g. all the cardiovascular drugs are grouped together).The individual drug cards contain all the key points you've had to memorize during coursework — mechanism of action, clinical indications, side effects, and even contraindications. There is a lot of information packed into each card, so the authors have used boldface and italics to point out the absolute basics. For example, the ACE inhibitor card bolds "arteriolar and venous dilator" in the Mechanism section. That's the basic effect boiled way down (obviously, the mechanism we all learn is inhibition of ACE... obviously). However, the rest of the Mechanism section also talks about renin, angiotensin II, bradykinin, etc. Similarly, the nitroglycerin card goes into detail explaining why the drug causes predominantly venodilation instead of arteriolar dilation. This is ancillary information, but it's nice to have. I also caution that some of the material that is NOT in boldface or italics could still be high-yield for boards. The digoxin card emphasizes AV node blockade in Side Effects but quietly mentions the characteristic yellowish visual halos.As a final plus point, these seem fairly up to date. Some of the drugs included here, such as aliskiren, are quite new and still under clinical investigation. Obviously, over time these will become outdated, but I trust new editions will be released on a regular basis.The drawback of PharmCards is the volume of information. These aren't completely stripped down to Step 1 info only, like what you find in First Aid. Instead, these have sections talking about metabolism, reasons for specific features, uncommon clinical uses, related drugs that I've never heard of (but also related drugs that are probably important to know, e.g. diltiazem is mentioned as a related drug on the verapamil card)... and so on. If you're the sort of person who can't parse a block of information without spending a lot of time getting caught in details, you may want to avoid these and stick to bookmarking the pharmacology section in each First Aid chapter.Here's how I would suggest using these (and this is what I'm currently doing): do a first pass through, reading each card but glossing over material that you know is low-yield (who wants to memorize the CYP that's responsible for metabolizing ranolazine? Anyone? Anyone?). Then, during boards study, flip through some cards each morning, paying attention only to the bold and italics. Supplement with First Aid, obviously — that way you won't miss anything that's high-yield but not in boldface/italics (e.g. the aforementioned visual changes with digoxin).In summary, these are a great review resource. Just make sure they aren't your sole pharmacology learning resource. As any medical student knows, it's important to curate the info and make sure at least one of your resources is hitting you in the face with any given high-yield point. In other words, use these to refresh your memory, not to help you figure out whether metabolic acidosis + respiratory alkalosis is an important presentation of aspirin overdose or just a minor curiosity (FYI: yeah, it's important).

I had ordered Lange cards first because i thought it will be closer to Katzung textbook ( since i am studying Katzung ) but they were notTher good in a way because they have clinical cases...but I would recommend these flashcards for students who need detailed explanations and are not happy with short cutsI agree there is way too much information but they r really good....and surprisingly they co relate perfectly with Katzung Textbook and made my life easier .. i don't have to make extra notes now....My suggestion would be to have a look before ordering them...you might/might not like itfor me, it works perfectly...I am very happy that i trusted my instincts and got themthey also have diagrams for Mechanism of actions which are very helpful especially for in chapters which are confusing....for example - dyslipidemia.the diagrams are clear and not clustered ...which makes it very easy to understand

I am a second year medical student and I wish I had used these last year during my first pharm course! Now that we're learning pathophysiology drugs they are extremely helpful (especially since our pharm lecturer is...not great). I haven't started reviewing for boards and I suspect these are too detailed for step 1, but as a substitute for textbooks (WAY too detailed) and a supplement to my lecturer, these are a great way to learn the drugs relatively painlessly.I *love* the illustrations that go with the drugs. They help me learn the categories well--I'll remember the card showing the summary of pharmacological treatment of asthma, for example, because of the illustrated pathways showing the drug site of action. These aren't flashcards like I expected, they are more of a very succinct, direct, clear textbook on cards.

I bought these cards as an M1 to study for classes. These cards are essentially a textbook in flashcard form, which is both good and bad. Each card has a TON of information on it, and I love the way material is organized on them; they do a great job of visually integrating all the information you could possibly need to know about a given drug onto one card, and the organization tables at the beginning of the deck are great for keeping things straight.The main problem I have with these cards is that they don't come with any convenient way of carrying them around or organizing them. The cards are large (4"x6") and are just shoved into a box in one large pile without any kind of convenient organization system. The only way I could possibly keep them organized would be to get a bulky notecard box, and this would make them even less portable than they already are. There is far too much information on these cards to use them as true flashcards, but a pile of small pieces of paper is too disorganized to study from like a book. Because of all this, I don't use these cards much. I wish the information on these cards were provided in a book form instead.