Transcript 01. introduction

PHARMACOLOGY
oScience of drugs
oGreek words= pharmakon (drug)
and logos (study)
oDeals
with
interaction
of
exogenously administered chemical
molecules with living system
 All aspects of the study of drugs
including drug development, drugbiological
system
interaction,
therapeutics and toxicology
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
 Recent branch of medical science ~
100 y old
 World’s oldest pharmacological or
therapeutic writing come from China
and India
BRANCHES/DIVISIONS OF
PHARMACOLOGY
1) Pharmcodynamics (Greek:dynamis,
power)
Deals with biological effects
(pharmacologic and toxic) and
mechanism of action of the drug
2) Pharmacokinetics
(Greek:kinesis, movement)
Refers to movement of the drug in,
through and out of the body to
achieve drug action
Four major processes; absorption,
distribution, biotransformation and
excretion
3) Pharmcotherapeutics
 Application of pharmacological information
together with knowledge of the disease for
its prevention or cure i.e. use of drugs in
treatment of disease
4) Clinical pharmacology
 Scientific study of drugs in man
 Pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics
investigation in healthy volunteers and in
patients
5) Chemotherapy
 Treatment of systemic infection/malignancy
with specific drugs that have toxicity for
infecting organism with no/minimal effects
on host cells
6) Pharmacy
 Preparation, compounding and dispensing
the drugs
 Collection,
identification,
purification,
isolation, synthesis, standardization and
quality control of medicinal substances
 Large scale manufacture of drugs is
Pharmaceutics
7) Toxicology
 Study of poisonous effects of drugs
and other chemicals (household
environmental pollutants, industrial,
agricultural, homicidal) with emphasis
on detection, prevention and
treatment of poisoning
 Study of adverse effects of drugs
8) Pharmaceutical chemistry
 Deals with chemical structure and
chemical reactions of active principles
of drugs
9) Pharmacognosy (Materia Medica)
 Deals
with
source,
identification,
physical and chemical characteristic of
drugs obtained from plants
10) Posology
 Deals with doses
DRUG
 Derived from French word, drogue (dry
herb)
 Chemical substance used in minute
quantities for the diagnosis, prevention
or treatment of diseases
 All
biologically
active
chemicals
including
poisons
and
addictive
substances are drugs
MEDICINE
 Chemical prep. usually but not
necessarily contains one or more drugs
administered with the intention of
therapy
 Active
drug+other
sub.
For
its
convenient use
 Drugs are given as such rather than
released by physiological mechanism
DRUG NOMENCLATURE
Drug has 3 names
1) Chemical Name
 According to molecular structure of
drug
 Long, complicated, inconvenient and
not used clinically
e.g. acetylsalicylic acid of aspirin
2) GENERIC NAME (NON
PROPRIETARY)
 Official name or approved name
 Simple, accepted world wide and
used in text books, pharmacopoeias,
medical journals and other reference
books
E.g. ampicillin, aspirin
3) Proprietary Name
Brand name chosen by pharmaceutical
firm
Same drug may have different names
e.g. paracetamol (Acenol, Aminol,
Atamol etc)