A practical approach to recognising the potential for and reducing the likelihood of, adverse drug reactions.

Summary There is now an increasing demand for chiropractic practice to encompass all the aspects of orthodox medicine, including the appreciation of pharmaceutical products. With the future possibility of chiropractors being given limited prescribing rights, practitioner appreciation of possible drug toxicity problems becomes even more imperative. This is a complex arena with no 'cookbook' approach easily available to hand. For this reason a good grounding in pharmacological principles should now be a vital part of every chiropractor's repertoire. This introduction is the first of a series of articles placing the utilisation of pharmacological principles within a clinical setting.