PHARMACOLOGY BOOKS | MBBS SECOND YEAR

MBBS is one of the toughest course in the world and those who are into it, know better what life gives when you pursue it. Today i am going to share my personal experience with MBBS Second Year Pharmacology in this blog.

When I cleared my First year MBBS, I was pretty excited about reaching the next level. For I have consulted my seniors on what I was going to face in second year, Pharmacology was something that quickly interested me apart from Pathology and the “scary”- Microbiology.

For once and quite a long, I stayed in fantasy, “C’mon, I will be prescribing medicines to people soon”. That indeed is the feeling of becoming Doctor. But as I got into it, I realized the things were getting worse than I expected.

My First Aim: Get the Recommended books for Pharmacology

As soon as I started to wonder more, I researched quite a bit from Google and my seniors, for what books should I study pharmacology, and what books I should consider if I a planning to pass in pharmacology. Following were the books I found interesting and quite good for second year mbbs student:-

1. K.D Tripathi- The bible of Pharmacology
2. Shanbagh- My personal savior
3. Gomes- Pharmacology

These three books are sequentially in order of priority on getting them. It’s up to you which one you prefer, though K.D tripathi is a must have book.

Follow up: Confused and confusions

To be honest, I started with doing 10 year question papers first. I took out the notebook, and the papers, and started solving questions. I looked up the drug, and into the book, and WHOOSH, I was messed badly because the same drug was given in around 5-20 pages. What I am supposed to do now? Should I just write down everything from every page or should I lie down and pray? None I chose, I preferred to learn from time. As soon as I got into pharmacology, what I found was quite interesting. It’s not that I have to get every word out from the pages in index; I have to choose the chapter, and then take out what I need and pen it down. Yeah, that’s what I did. The things may be 10X tougher in Top Medical Colleges.

Shanbagh: My personal 5 star Savior

When exams came over head, it brought a lot of prayers to make. I was still not prepared, or perhaps everything was getting mixed! Yeah, precisely, everything was banging in my head and the drugs, their names were getting scarier than I expected them to be. I started making simpler and shorter notes, cutting and pasting it all over in my hostel room, yet the stress was not going to reduce.

This was the time, when I discovered this new book: Shanbagh Pharmacology. Well, I just found it, don’t ask me how. But as soon as I started reading it, I didn’t have to make notes (If you try to make notes from it, you will end up with barely anything to write in exams). Next moment, I was finding mnemonics and tricks to learn from the same book. In no time, I was having fun around with pharmacology (Though the names were still scary).

Here is a sample chapter from the book:-




I would strongly recommend Shanbagh Pharmacology book for Second year Mbbs. Some may think that you are not making base with this books. For those, I have clearly mentioned K.D tripathi as bible of Pharmacology, but one always end up requiring quick revision notes. This is where Shanbagh book can come a lot handy with inbuilt mnemonics and tricks.

Winding up

Pharmacology was fun indeed later. We used to talk about medicines for common diseases. Zantac aka Ranitidine H-2 blocker is still the favorite med of all times in hostels (no wonders why :p). The more you discuss about it, the more you learn. Practical knowledge is indeed the most useful tool for a Doctor.  Pharmacology base is very important since you are going to learn prescription for diseases in further years of MBBS, especially the medicine subject. The Third year of Mbbs will also time-to-time check your pharmacology skills, while after mbbs you are certainly going to need it, especially in MD.