A Quantitative and Narrative Evaluation of Goodman and Gilman's Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics.

Brian J Piper,Gabi N Waite,Daniel Y Chung,Vicky M Shah,Michael Bordonaro,Sara M Graham,Kimberly A Miller,Alexandria A Alinea,John R Wroblewski,Pamela A Lucchesi,Steven S Kheloussi,Qais K Zalim,William A Mclaughlin,Livia R M Mccutcheon,John A Arnott,John L Szarek,Melissa A Birkett

doi:10.3390/pharmacy8010001

Abstract

Goodman and Gilman’s The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics (GGPBT) has been a cornerstone in the education of pharmacists, physicians, and pharmacologists for decades. The objectives of this study were to describe and evaluate the 13th edition of GGPBT on bases including: (1) author characteristics; (2) recency of citations; (3) conflict of interest (CoI) disclosure; (4) expert evaluation of chapters. Contributors’ (N = 115) sex, professional degrees, and presence of undisclosed potential CoI—as reported by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid’s Open Payments (2013–2017)—were examined. The year of publication of citations was extracted relative to Katzung’s Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (KatBCP), and DiPiro’s Pharmacotherapy: A Pathophysiologic Approach (DiPPAPA). Content experts provided thorough chapter reviews. The percent of GGPBT contributors that were female (20.9%) was equivalent to those in KatBCP (17.0%). Citations in GGPBT (11.5 ± 0.2 years) were significantly older than those in KatBCP (10.4 ± 0.2) and DiPPAPA (9.1 ± 0.1, p < 0.0001). Contributors to GGPBT received USD 3 million in undisclosed remuneration (Maximum author = USD 743,718). In contrast, DiPPAPA made CoI information available. Reviewers noted several strengths but also some areas for improvement. GGPBT will continue to be an important component of the biomedical curriculum. Areas of improvement include a more diverse authorship, improved conflict of interest transparency, and a greater inclusion of more recent citations.

Highlights

The presence of conflict of interest (CoI) was deemed exempt by the Wright Center Institutional
Among Gilman’s Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics (GG PBT) authors with a US affiliation (N = 109), 42.3% had professional degrees that were covered by the Sunshine Act (i.e., PhDs and PharmDs were not covered)
The quantitative and qualitative evaluation provided here is a substantial extension of prior reports [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,12]

Summary

Introduction

Goodman (1906–2000) completed his undergraduate degree at Reed College and his MD at the University of Oregon Medical School in Portland, Oregon. Goodman and Alfred Gilman, his colleague and collaborator on nitrogen mustard investigations, published the first edition of Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics (GG PBT) in 1941. G (Goodman) Gilman (1941–2015) received a Nobel Prize for his work on signal transduction and served in various editorial capacities for the 5th to 10th editions. The first reviewer was “delirious in his appraisal of the book” and anticipated it would become the standard text in pharmacology [1]. The eighteen-hundred-page 2nd edition, published in 1956, was referred to as encyclopedic and indispensable [2]. A reviewer noted that “all other related books seem to pale by comparison” [3]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion