The past, present and future of clinical pharmacology.

Four decades of clinical pharmacological research (1960-2000) have emphasized different aspects of the discipline from controlled clinical trial and drug metabolism during the early 1960s to molecular pharmacogenetics and pharmacoeconomy during the late 1990s. Clinical pharmacology is not only a research discipline, but also a clinical specialty in its own right with functions in health care that focus on the rational use of drugs by physicians and patients. Clinical pharmacology should bridge the gap between product specialists and prescribers by emphasizing both pharmacological and medical aspects of drug treatment. A recent review of the development of the discipline in Europe shows satisfactory progress in several countries, but active recruitment of young physicians to the discipline is necessary to avoid a shortage of clinical pharmacologists in the future.