Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (CPT) have been developing as an academic discipline over the last 30 years or so, but its impact on health care services has so far been less impressive than had originally been hoped. In the European region, CPT has developed well in some countries but less well in others. The World Health Organisation (WHO) produced an overall document on CPT in 1970 (1) and some 15 years ago the European Office of WHO started a Europe wide initiative to stimulate the development of CPT.

The desire to help the emerging discipline of CPT in the Eastern European countries was strong and at a meeting in Verona in 1991, it was agreed to create an organization which soon became known as the European Association for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (EACPT).The importance of education and training to the Association is obvious from the statutes. However, this European Guide is the first outward evidence of the commitment of EACPT to education and training. It describes the nature and organization of CPT in each country and a map gives the location of the various centres where CPT is undertaken. In addition, each centre of CPT is described in some detail which tells the reader about the main interests of the department concerned, the staff involved, and also gives a short list of relevant research publications.