Musical Pharmacology
Digital PDF edition · First edition, 2026
Understand the mechanism · Connect the concepts · Remember what matters

Pharmacology, learned from the mechanism outward.

Musical Pharmacology is a digital textbook for medical students that explains each drug from what it does to a molecule to what it does to a patient, then gives you memory devices for the lists that remain.

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  • See why an adverse effect or contraindication follows from the mechanism, instead of learning it as a separate list.
  • Hold classifications and receptor maps with letter, rhythm and sentence devices drawn from more than a thousand recorded teaching sessions.
  • Cover the whole subject in one place: 80 chapters across 14 sections, from general principles to applied pharmacology.
~1,077 pages80 chapters14 sectionsby Dr. Karun Kumar, MD (Pharmacology)
Cover of Musical Pharmacology: A mechanism-first textbook of pharmacology, with the memory devices that carry it, by Dr. Karun Kumar, MD (Pharmacology)
The problem

Most of pharmacology is not hard. There is just a great deal of it, and it arrives as lists.

Too many lists to hold

Drug classes, receptor subtypes, adverse effects, contraindications and interactions, all learned separately and all needed at the same time in an examination.

Mechanisms that don't connect

You can state how a drug acts and, separately, what it is used for, but not how one leads to the other.

Look-alikes that behave differently

Two drugs with similar effects and different mechanisms blur together, and the distinction is exactly what gets asked.

Facts that fade after the exam

Lists memorised for a fortnight are hard to retrieve under pressure and harder still two years later, at postgraduate entrance or on the ward.

The lists are rarely the real difficulty. Each one is the answer to a question nobody asked out loud, and without the question there is nothing to hang the answer on.

The approach

Put the questions back, in the order that explains them.

Every drug in the book is followed along the same chain. Once you can see the chain, the effects, uses and cautions of a class arrive already organised.

01 · Molecule

What the drug does to a molecule

The receptor, enzyme, channel or transporter it acts on.

02 · Cell

What that does to a cell

The signal changed and the response that follows.

03 · Organ

What the cell does to an organ

The tissues that carry the target, and how they respond.

04 · Patient

What the organ does to a patient

The therapeutic effect, and the effects nobody wanted.

Therapeutic useThe mechanism arriving in the organ you intended.
Adverse effectThe same mechanism arriving in the wrong organ.
ContraindicationThe step of the chain this patient cannot afford.
Worked example from Chapter 8 · why atropine causes dry skin and hyperthermia
Molecule

Atropine blocks muscarinic receptors

Cell

Sweat glands are sympathetic, but cholinergic and muscarinic

Organ

Sweating stops

Patient

Dry skin, and heat that cannot be shed

A sympathetic organ shut down by a parasympathetic blocker looks like a contradiction to memorise. With the transmitter table in front of you, it follows directly.

What is inside each chapter

Built to be understood first, and remembered second.

Mechanisms before memorisation

Each chapter states the one or two rules that generate everything else in it. The classification in the middle is derived from those rules, so it reads as a consequence rather than an arbitrary list.

Chapters shaped like music

The musical structure came out of teaching the material aloud. It is how the content hangs together:

Opening noteA patient or a problem
RhythmThe rules that drive the chapter
MelodyThe drug classes, developed from them
CounterpointLook-alike drugs that behave in opposite ways

Memory devices that carry lists

Letter carriers, metre and rhyme carriers, and sentence devices that state why a list exists as well as what is on it. Standard devices are marked as standard; the author's own are not passed off as anything else.

Connected to clinical reasoning

Chapters open with a clinical case and connect mechanism to therapeutic use, adverse effects and contraindications. Doses and indications are given to show how a drug's pharmacology produces them.

Structured for revision

Comparison tables for receptors, transmitters and drug classes, and a closing passage in each chapter that gathers what a reader should carry out of it.

Honest about its sources

Written against six named reference works. Page numbers are printed only where they can be checked, and where sources disagree the disagreement is printed rather than resolved out of sight.

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What it covers

The whole subject, in the order the body is arranged.

General principles first, then each system in turn, then the antimicrobials, the antineoplastics and the applied topics that draw on all of them.

80
chapters
14
sections
1,077
PDF pages, approx.
01General Pharmacology8 ch.
  1. 1Introduction and Routes of Administration
  2. 2Pharmacokinetics I
  3. 3Pharmacokinetics II
  4. 4Pharmacodynamics
  5. 4AQuantitative Pharmacology
  6. 5Drug Dosage and Pharmacotherapeutics
  7. 6Evidence, Drug Development and Pharmacoeconomics
  8. 7Adverse Drug Effects
02The Autonomic Nervous System5 ch.
  1. 8The Autonomic Nervous System
  2. 9Cholinergic Transmission and Drugs
  3. 10Anticholinergic Drugs
  4. 11Adrenergic Transmission and Drugs
  5. 12Antiadrenergic Drugs and Drugs for Glaucoma
03Autacoids and Inflammation5 ch.
  1. 13Histamine and Antihistaminics
  2. 145-Hydroxytryptamine and Migraine
  3. 15Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes and PAF
  4. 16NSAIDs and Antipyretic-Analgesics
  5. 17Antirheumatic and Antigout Drugs
04Respiratory System Drugs1 ch.
  1. 18Drugs for Cough, Bronchial Asthma and COPD
05Hormones and Related Drugs7 ch.
  1. 19Anterior Pituitary Hormones
  2. 20Thyroid Hormones and Thyroid Inhibitors
  3. 21Antidiabetic Drugs and Glucagon
  4. 22Corticosteroids
  5. 23Androgens and Related Drugs, Drugs for Erectile Dysfunction
  6. 24Estrogens, Progestins, Contraceptives and Uterine Pharmacology
  7. 26Hormones Affecting Calcium Balance and Drugs for Osteoporosis
06Neuromuscular and Local Anaesthetic Drugs2 ch.
  1. 27Skeletal Muscle Relaxants
  2. 28Local Anaesthetics
07Central Nervous System Pharmacology11 ch.
  1. 29General Anaesthetics
  2. 30Sedative-Hypnotics
  3. 30AThe Newer Hypnotics, and Choosing Between Them
  4. 31Antiepileptic Drugs
  5. 32Drugs for Parkinsonism
  6. 32AAlzheimer's Disease, the Dementias, and Motor Neuron Disease
  7. 32BHuntington's Disease and the Other Movement Disorders
  8. 33Drugs Used in Mental Illness: Antipsychotic and Antimanic Drugs
  9. 34Drugs Used in Mental Illness: Antidepressant and Antianxiety Drugs
  10. 34AOpioid Analgesics and Antagonists
  11. 34BAlcohols, Drug Dependence and Drug Addiction
08Cardiovascular Drugs5 ch.
  1. 35Drugs Affecting the Renin-Angiotensin System
  2. 36Cardiac Glycosides and Drugs for Heart Failure
  3. 37Antiarrhythmic Drugs
  4. 38Antianginal and Other Anti-ischaemic Drugs
  5. 39Antihypertensive Drugs and the Drugs Used in Shock
09Renal Pharmacology3 ch.
  1. 40Relevant Physiology of Urine Formation
  2. 41Diuretics
  3. 42Antidiuretics
10Drugs Affecting Blood and Blood Formation3 ch.
  1. 43Hematinics, Erythropoietin and Colony Stimulating Factors
  2. 44Drugs Affecting Coagulation, Bleeding and Thrombosis; Plasma Expanders
  3. 45Hypolipidaemic Drugs
11Gastrointestinal Drugs4 ch.
  1. 46Drugs for Acid-Peptic Disease and Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease
  2. 47Antiemetic, Prokinetic and Biliary Drugs
  3. 48ADrugs for Constipation
  4. 48BDrugs for Diarrhoea, Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Irritable Bowel Syndrome
12Antimicrobial Drugs16 ch.
  1. 49Antimicrobial Drugs: General Principles
  2. 50ASulfonamides and Cotrimoxazole
  3. 50BQuinolones and Fluoroquinolones
  4. 51APenicillins
  5. 51BCephalosporins, Carbapenems, Monobactams and the Other Cell-Wall Agents
  6. 52Tetracyclines and Chloramphenicol
  7. 53Aminoglycoside Antibiotics
  8. 54Macrolide and Other Antibiotics; Drugs for UTI and STD
  9. 55Antitubercular Drugs
  10. 56Antileprotic Drugs
  11. 57Antifungal Drugs
  12. 58Antiviral Drugs (Non-retroviral)
  13. 59Antiviral Drugs (Antiretrovirus)
  14. 60Antimalarial Drugs
  15. 61Antiamoebic and Other Antiprotozoal Drugs
  16. 62Anthelmintic Drugs
13Antineoplastic Drugs2 ch.
  1. 63Anticancer Drugs
  2. 63AThe Counterpoint
14Special Topics and Applied Pharmacology8 ch.
  1. 64Immunosuppressant Drugs
  2. 65Drugs Acting on Skin
  3. 66Antiseptics, Disinfectants and Ectoparasiticides
  4. 67Environmental Toxicology, Poisonings, Chelating Agents, Bites and Stings
  5. 68Vitamins; Dietary Supplements and Nutraceuticals; Herbal Medicines
  6. 69Vaccines, Antisera and Immunoglobulins
  7. 70Drug Interactions
  8. 70AFatal Combinations

Tap a section to see its chapters. The book also includes a preface, notes on the memory devices and chapter numbering, a Sources and Locators chapter naming the six reference works, and an index of drugs, drug stems and subjects.

Look inside

Read the book before you buy it.

The excerpts below are transcribed from the PDF, with page numbers, so you can judge the writing for yourself.

Musical Pharmacology · Front matter

Contents

The fourteen sections and the eighty chapters, by the titles they carry
SECTION 2 THE AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM
8 The Autonomic Nervous System84
9 Cholinergic Transmission and Drugs94
10 Anticholinergic Drugs104
11 Adrenergic Transmission and Drugs114
12 Antiadrenergic Drugs and Drugs for Glaucoma124
SECTION 3 AUTACOIDS AND INFLAMMATION
13 Histamine and Antihistaminics134
14 5-Hydroxytryptamine and Migraine143
15 Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes and PAF152
iii
Contents, page iii
Musical Pharmacology · Front matter

Preface

What this book is for, how it is built, and what it does not claim

A student can pass a pharmacology examination by holding several hundred lists in mind for about a fortnight. I have watched it done, I have examined the people who did it, and I have taught the ones who came back two years later having kept none of it. The lists are not the problem. The problem is that a list is the answer to a question nobody asked out loud, and a student who never hears the question has nothing to hang the answer on.

This book is an attempt to put the questions back.

v
Preface, page v
8 · The Autonomic Nervous System
FIRST EAT, THEN FALL IN LOVE, THE REST LATERMNEMONIC — RECOVERED FROM THE RECORDINGS
Pehle khao — first eat → M₁ → gastric glands
Phir dil lagao — then give your heart → M₂ → the heart
Baaki kaam baad mein — the rest later → M₃ → all other smooth muscle and glands
It carries M₁ to M₃ completely and stops there; M₄ and M₅ are not in it and are not added here, because a device extended past what it holds stops being reliable.
ONE HEART, TWO LUNGS — AND KISSMNEMONIC
You have one heart and two lungs. One heart, β₁. Two lungs, β₂.
KISS — α₁ = Gq · α₂ = Gi · β₁ = Gs · β₂ = Gs
87–88
Memory devices, Chapter 8, pages 87–88 (excerpted)
Read a free 6-page sample (PDF) Cover, contents, preface, the opening of Chapter 1, and page 87.
Is it right for you

Written for people who want to understand pharmacology, not only get through it.

A good fit if you are

  • An MBBS student studying pharmacology for the first time and wanting a framework rather than a pile of lists.
  • Revising for professional examinations and finding that mechanisms, uses and adverse effects don't yet connect.
  • A medical graduate preparing for postgraduate entrance and returning to pharmacology after time away.
  • A teacher of pharmacology looking for mechanism-led explanations and retrieval devices to use in class.

Probably not what you need if you want

  • A question bank or practice tests. The book contains explanations, not MCQs.
  • A flashcard or spaced-repetition app.
  • A prescribing manual. Doses are given to teach pharmacology; prescribers should use current product information, the national formulary and local guidelines.
  • A printed copy. This is the digital PDF edition.
About the author

Dr. Karun Kumar

MD (Pharmacology) Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology Palakkad Institute of Medical Sciences, Palakkad, Kerala, India

Dr. Karun Kumar teaches pharmacology to medical students and has examined them. Musical Pharmacology grew out of that teaching: the chapter structure came from presenting the material aloud, and the memory devices come from more than a thousand of his recorded teaching sessions in English, Hindi and Arabic.

The book is his attempt to give students the reasoning behind each drug, so that its effects and cautions can be worked out as well as recalled. It is written against six named reference works, and he asks readers to check its citations and report errors.

“A missing device costs a reader a retrieval aid; a fabricated one costs them their trust in every other device in the book.”
Questions

Before you buy

What is Musical Pharmacology?

A complete pharmacology textbook in PDF form, written by Dr. Karun Kumar, MD (Pharmacology). It runs to about 1,077 pages in 80 chapters and 14 sections. Each topic is explained from the drug's mechanism through to its clinical effects, and memory devices are included to help you retrieve classifications and other lists.

Who will benefit most from it?

MBBS students studying or revising pharmacology, medical graduates preparing for postgraduate entrance examinations, and teachers of pharmacology. It suits readers who want to understand why drugs behave as they do. Chapters are designed to be read from the beginning, because each classification is derived from the rules stated at the start.

What topics does it cover?

General pharmacology (including pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and adverse drug effects), the autonomic nervous system, autacoids and inflammation, respiratory drugs, hormones, neuromuscular and local anaesthetic drugs, CNS pharmacology, cardiovascular, renal, blood, gastrointestinal, antimicrobial and antineoplastic drugs, and applied topics such as immunosuppressants, toxicology, vaccines and drug interactions. The full chapter list is in the contents section above.

Is it a printed book or a digital product?

It is a digital product: the complete book as a single PDF file. No printed copy is posted.

How do I receive the PDF after paying?

When your payment is completed, the payment page takes you to the download page for the book, where you can download the PDF straight away. Save the file to your device so you can open it later.

Is the book in English?

Yes. Some memory devices are built on Hindi phrases; where they are, the English meaning is printed beside them.

Can I use it for examination revision?

Yes. It is written for study and revision, with comparison tables, memory devices, and a closing passage in each chapter that gathers what to carry away. How well it works for you depends on how you study; no particular result is promised.

Does it replace standard textbooks or clinical guidelines?

No. In the author's words, it is a synthesis arranged to be understood and remembered, not a substitute for the reference works it is written against. It is not a prescribing authority: prescribers should work from current approved product information, the national formulary and the guidelines in force where they practise.

What if my download link doesn't work?

The download page has a second, direct link that opens the PDF in your browser, from where you can save it. If neither works, contact karun_kumar@live.in with your payment reference.

Musical Pharmacology · Digital edition

Learn each drug from its mechanism, and keep the lists that follow from it.

A chain to followMolecule, cell, organ, patient, in that order, for every drug class.
Devices to carry the listsLetter, rhythm and sentence devices, with standard ones clearly marked.
The whole subject80 chapters, 14 sections and about 1,077 pages in one PDF.
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