Pharmacology is the branch of medicine and
biologyBiology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
concerned with the study of
drugA drug, broadly speaking, is any substance that, when absorbed into the body of a living organism, alters normal bodily function. There is no single, precise definition, as there are different meanings in drug control law, government regulations, medicine, and colloquial usage.In pharmacology, a...
action. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur between a living organism and chemicals that affect normal or abnormal biochemical function. If substances have
medicinalA pharmaceutical drug, also referred to as medicine, medication or medicament, can be loosely defined as any chemical substance intended for use in the medical diagnosis, cure, treatment, or prevention of disease.- Classification :...
properties, they are considered pharmaceuticals. The field encompasses
drugA drug, broadly speaking, is any substance that, when absorbed into the body of a living organism, alters normal bodily function. There is no single, precise definition, as there are different meanings in drug control law, government regulations, medicine, and colloquial usage.In pharmacology, a...
composition and properties,
interactionA drug interaction is a situation in which a substance affects the activity of a drug, i.e. the effects are increased or decreased, or they produce a new effect that neither produces on its own. Typically, interaction between drugs come to mind...
s,
toxicologyToxicology is a branch of biology, chemistry, and medicine concerned with the study of the adverse effects of chemicals on living organisms...
, therapy, and medical applications and antipathogenic capabilities. The two main areas of pharmacology are
pharmacodynamicsPharmacodynamics is the study of the biochemical and physiological effects of drugs on the body or on microorganisms or parasites within or on the body and the mechanisms of drug action and the relationship between drug concentration and effect...
and
pharmacokineticsPharmacokinetics, sometimes abbreviated as PK, is a branch of pharmacology dedicated to the determination of the fate of substances administered externally to a living organism...
. The former studies the effects of the drugs on biological systems, and the latter the effects of biological systems on the drugs. In broad terms,
pharmacodynamicsPharmacodynamics is the study of the biochemical and physiological effects of drugs on the body or on microorganisms or parasites within or on the body and the mechanisms of drug action and the relationship between drug concentration and effect...
discusses the interactions of chemicals with biological receptors, and
pharmacokineticsPharmacokinetics, sometimes abbreviated as PK, is a branch of pharmacology dedicated to the determination of the fate of substances administered externally to a living organism...
discusses the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of chemicals from the biological systems. Pharmacology is not synonymous with
pharmacyPharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs...
and the two terms are frequently confused. Pharmacology deals with how drugs interact within biological systems to affect function. It is the study of drugs, of the reactions of the body and drug on each other, the sources of drugs, their nature, and their properties. In contrast,
pharmacyPharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs...
is a biomedical science concerned with preparation, dispensing, dosage, and the safe and effective use of medicines.
DioscoridesPedanius Dioscorides was a Greek physician, pharmacologist and botanist, the author of a 5-volume encyclopedia about herbal medicine and related medicinal substances , that was widely read for more than 1,500 years.-Life:...
'
De Materia Medica is often said to be the oldest and most valuable work in the history of pharmacology. The origins of
clinical pharmacologyClinical pharmacology is the science of drugs and their clinical use. It is underpinned by the basic science of pharmacology, with added focus on the application of pharmacological principles and methods in the real world...
date back to the
Middle AgesThe Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
in
AvicennaAbū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sīnā , commonly known as Ibn Sīnā or by his Latinized name Avicenna, was a Persian polymath, who wrote almost 450 treatises on a wide range of subjects, of which around 240 have survived...
's
The Canon of MedicineThe Canon of Medicine is an encyclopedia of Galenic medicine in five books compiled by Ibn Sīnā and completed in 1025. It presents a clear and organized summary of all the medical knowledge of the time...
,
Peter of SpainPeter of Spain or, in Latin, Petrus Hispanus is the Mediaeval author of Tractatus, later known as Summulae logicales magistri Petri Hispani , a standard textbook on logic...
's
Commentary on Isaac, and John of St Amand's
Commentary on the Antedotary of Nicholas. Clinical pharmacology owes much of its foundation to the work of
William WitheringWilliam Withering was an English botanist, geologist, chemist, physician and the discoverer of digitalis.-Introduction:...
. Pharmacology as a scientific discipline did not further advance until the mid-19th century amid the great biomedical resurgence of that period. Before the second half of the nineteenth century, the remarkable potency and specificity of the actions of drugs such as
morphineMorphine is a potent opiate analgesic medication and is considered to be the prototypical opioid. It was first isolated in 1804 by Friedrich Sertürner, first distributed by same in 1817, and first commercially sold by Merck in 1827, which at the time was a single small chemists' shop. It was more...
,
quinineQuinine is a natural white crystalline alkaloid having antipyretic , antimalarial, analgesic , anti-inflammatory properties and a bitter taste. It is a stereoisomer of quinidine which, unlike quinine, is an anti-arrhythmic...
and
digitalisDigitalis is a genus of about 20 species of herbaceous perennials, shrubs, and biennials that are commonly called foxgloves. This genus was traditionally placed in the figwort family Scrophulariaceae, but recent reviews of phylogenetic research have placed it in the much enlarged family...
were explained vaguely and with reference to extraordinary chemical powers and affinities to certain organs or tissues. The first pharmacology department was set up by
Rudolf BuchheimRudolf Buchheim was a German pharmacologist who was born in Bautzen. In 1845 he earned his doctorate from the University of Leipzig and soon after became a professor at the University of Dorpat. While at Dorpat he created the first pharmacological institute at that school...
in 1847, in recognition of the need to understand how therapeutic drugs and poisons produced their effects.
Early pharmacologists focused on natural substances, mainly plant extracts. Pharmacology developed in the 19th century as a biomedical science that applied the principles of scientific experimentation to therapeutic contexts.
PsychopharmacologyPsychopharmacology is the scientific study of the actions of drugs and their effects on mood, sensation, thinking, and behavior...
Effects of medication on the brain; observing changed behaviors of the body
and read the effect of drugs on the brain.
PharmacogeneticsThe terms pharmacogenomics and pharmacogenetics tend to be used interchangeably, and a precise, consensus definition of either remains elusive...
Clinical testing of genetic variation that gives rise to differing response to drugs.
PharmacogenomicsPharmacogenomics is the branch of pharmacology which deals with the influence of genetic variation on drug response in patients by correlating gene expression or single-nucleotide polymorphisms with a drug's efficacy or toxicity...
Application of genomic technologies to new drug discovery and further characterization of older drugs.
Posology
How medicines are dosed. It also depends upon various factors like age, climate, weight, sex, and so on.
PharmacognosyPharmacognosy is the study of medicines derived from natural sources. The American Society of Pharmacognosy defines pharmacognosy as "the study of the physical, chemical, biochemical and biological properties of drugs, drug substances or potential drugs or drug substances of natural origin as well...
A branch of pharmacology dealing especially with the composition, use, and development of medicinal substances of biological origin and especially medicinal substances obtained from plants also known as deriving medicines from plants
Behavioral Pharmacology
Behavioral pharmacology, also referred to as psychopharmacology, is an interdisciplinary field which studies behavioral effects of psychoactive drugs. It incorporates approaches and techniques from neuropharmacology, animal behavior and behavioral neuroscience, and is interested in the behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms of action of psychoactive drugs. Another goal of behavioral pharmacology is to develop animal behavioral models to screen chemical compounds with therapeutic potentials. People in this field (called behavioral pharmacologists) typically use small animals (e.g. rodents) to study psychotherapeutic drugs such as antipsychotics, antidepressants and anxiolytics, and drugs of abuse such as nicotine, cocaine, methamphetamine, etc.
Environmental Pharmacology
Environmental pharmacology is a new discipline. Focus is being given to understand Gene–environment interaction, drug-environment interaction and toxin-environment interaction. There is a close collaboration between the
Environmental scienceEnvironmental science is an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates physical and biological sciences, to the study of the environment, and the solution of environmental problems...
and Medical community in addressing these issues. It is recognised that healthcare can itself be a cause of Environmental damage as well as its remediation. Human health and ecology is intimately related. Demand for more pharmaceutical products is destroying countless species of animals and plants, placing the public at risk. The entry of chemicals and drugs into the
Aquatic ecosystemAn aquatic ecosystem is an ecosystem in a body of water. Communities of organisms that are dependent on each other and on their environment live in aquatic ecosystems. The two main types of aquatic ecosystems are marine ecosystems and freshwater ecosystems....
is a more serious concern today. In addition, the production of some Illegal drugs pollutes drinking water supply by releasing carcinogens. The pharmaceutical industry is encouraged to pay greater attention to the environmental impact of its products. More and more biodegradability of drugs are needed. It means environment friendly drugs could be designed. General standards for discharge of environment pollutants is implemented strictly and environmental impact assessment is checked frequently by health and other concerned regulators. Today, in
Environmental Pharmacology, the topics which are covered includes Pharmacoenvironmentology and Ecopharmacology which is all about the study of
Pharmaceuticals and personal care products in the environmentThe environmental impact of pharmaceuticals and personal care products is largely speculative. PPCPs are substances used by individuals for personal health or cosmetic reasons and the products used by agribusiness to boost growth or health of livestock. PPCPs have been detected in water bodies...
.
Scientific background
The study of chemicals requires intimate knowledge of the biological system affected. With the knowledge of
cell biologyCell biology is a scientific discipline that studies cells – their physiological properties, their structure, the organelles they contain, interactions with their environment, their life cycle, division and death. This is done both on a microscopic and molecular level...
and
biochemistryBiochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...
increasing, the field of pharmacology has also changed substantially. It has become possible, through molecular analysis of
receptorsIn biochemistry, a receptor is a molecule found on the surface of a cell, which receives specific chemical signals from neighbouring cells or the wider environment within an organism...
, to design chemicals that act on specific cellular signaling or
metabolic pathwayIn biochemistry, metabolic pathways are series of chemical reactions occurring within a cell. In each pathway, a principal chemical is modified by a series of chemical reactions. Enzymes catalyze these reactions, and often require dietary minerals, vitamins, and other cofactors in order to function...
s by affecting sites directly on cell-surface receptors (which modulate and mediate cellular signaling pathways controlling cellular function).
A chemical has, from the pharmacological point-of-view, various properties.
PharmacokineticsPharmacokinetics, sometimes abbreviated as PK, is a branch of pharmacology dedicated to the determination of the fate of substances administered externally to a living organism...
describes the effect of the body on the chemical (e.g.
half-lifeHalf-life, abbreviated t½, is the period of time it takes for the amount of a substance undergoing decay to decrease by half. The name was originally used to describe a characteristic of unstable atoms , but it may apply to any quantity which follows a set-rate decay.The original term, dating to...
and
volume of distributionThe volume of distribution , also known as apparent volume of distribution, is a pharmacological term used to quantify the distribution of a medication between plasma and the rest of the body after oral or parenteral dosing...
), and
pharmacodynamicsPharmacodynamics is the study of the biochemical and physiological effects of drugs on the body or on microorganisms or parasites within or on the body and the mechanisms of drug action and the relationship between drug concentration and effect...
describes the chemical's effect on the body (desired or toxic).
When describing the pharmacokinetic properties of a chemical, pharmacologists are often interested in
LADME:
- Liberation
-Publications:* Libération, French newspaper* Libération , a Moroccan newspaper* Liberation , monthly pacifist magazine founded, published, and edited by A.J...
- disintegration (for solid oral forms {breaking down into smaller particles}), dispersal and dissolution
- Absorption - How is the medication absorbed (through the skin
The human skin is the outer covering of the body. In humans, it is the largest organ of the integumentary system. The skin has multiple layers of ectodermal tissue and guards the underlying muscles, bones, ligaments and internal organs. Human skin is similar to that of most other mammals,...
, the intestineIn human anatomy, the intestine is the segment of the alimentary canal extending from the pyloric sphincter of the stomach to the anus and, in humans and other mammals, consists of two segments, the small intestine and the large intestine...
, the oral mucosaThe oral mucosa is the mucous membrane epithelium of the mouth. It can be divided into three categories.*Masticatory mucosa, para-keratinized stratified squamous epithelium, found on the dorsum of the tongue, hard palate and attached gingiva....
)?
- Distribution
Distribution in pharmacology is a branch of pharmacokinetics which describes the reversible transfer of drug from one location to another within the body....
- How does it spread through the organism?
- Metabolism
Drug metabolism is the biochemical modification of pharmaceutical substances by living organisms, usually through specialized enzymatic systems. This is a form of xenobiotic metabolism. Drug metabolism often converts lipophilic chemical compounds into more readily excreted polar products...
- Is the medication converted chemically inside the body, and into which substances. Are these active? Could they be toxic?
- Excretion
Excretion is the process by which waste products of metabolism and other non-useful materials are eliminated from an organism. This is primarily carried out by the lungs, kidneys and skin. This is in contrast with secretion, where the substance may have specific tasks after leaving the cell...
- How is the medication eliminated (through the bile, urine, breath, skin)?
Medication is said to have a narrow or wide
therapeutic indexThe therapeutic index is a comparison of the amount of a therapeutic agent that causes the therapeutic effect to the amount that causes death or toxicity ....
or
therapeutic windowThe Therapeutic window of a drug is the range of drug dosages which can treat disease effectively while staying within the safety range. In other words, it is the dosages of a medication between the amount that gives an effect and the amount that gives more adverse effects than desired effects...
. This describes the ratio of desired effect to toxic effect. A compound with a narrow therapeutic index (close to one) exerts its desired effect at a dose close to its toxic dose. A compound with a wide therapeutic index (greater than five) exerts its desired effect at a dose substantially below its toxic dose. Those with a narrow margin are more difficult to dose and administer, and may require
therapeutic drug monitoring- Background :Therapeutic drug monitoring is a branch of clinical chemistry and clinical pharmacology that specializes in the measurement of medication concentrations in blood. Its main focus is on drugs with a narrow therapeutic range, i.e. drugs that can easily be under- or overdosed...
(examples are
warfarinWarfarin is an anticoagulant. It is most likely to be the drug popularly referred to as a "blood thinner," yet this is a misnomer, since it does not affect the thickness or viscosity of blood...
, some antiepileptics,
aminoglycosideAn aminoglycoside is a molecule or a portion of a molecule composed of amino-modifiedsugars.Several aminoglycosides function as antibiotics that are effective against certain types of bacteria...
antibiotics). Most anti-
cancerCancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
drugs have a narrow therapeutic margin: toxic side-effects are almost always encountered at doses used to kill
tumorA tumor or tumour is commonly used as a synonym for a neoplasm that appears enlarged in size. Tumor is not synonymous with cancer...
s.
Medicine development and safety testing
Development of medicationDrug development is a blanket term used to define the process of bringing a new drug to the market once a lead compound has been identified through the process of drug discovery...
is a vital concern to
medicineMedicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
, but also has strong economical and political implications. To protect the
consumerConsumer is a broad label for any individuals or households that use goods generated within the economy. The concept of a consumer occurs in different contexts, so that the usage and significance of the term may vary.-Economics and marketing:...
and prevent abuse, many governments regulate the manufacture, sale, and administration of medication. In the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the main body that regulates pharmaceuticals is the
Food and Drug AdministrationThe Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...
and they enforce standards set by the United States Pharmacopoeia. In the
European UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
, the main
bodyWith regard to living things, a body is the physical body of an individual. "Body" often is used in connection with appearance, health issues and death...
that regulates pharmaceuticals is the
EMEAThe European Medicines Agency is a European agency for the evaluation of medicinal products. From 1995 to 2004, the European Medicines Agency was known as European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products.Roughly parallel to the U.S...
and they enforce standards set by the
European PharmacopoeiaThe European Pharmacopoeia of the Council of Europe is a pharmacopoeia, listing a wide range of active substances and excipients used to prepare pharmaceutical products in Europe...
.
The metabolic stability and the reactivity of a library of candidate drug compounds have to be assessed for drug metabolism and toxicological studies. Many methods have been proposed for quantitative predictions in drug metabolism; one example of a recent computational method is
SPORCalc. If the chemical structure of a medicinal compound is altered slightly, this could slightly or dramatically alter the medicinal properties of the compound depending on the level of alteration as it relates to the structural composition of the substrate or receptor site on which it exerts its medicinal effect, a concept referred to as the structural activity relationship (SAR). This means that when a useful activity has been identified, chemists will make many similar compounds called analogues, in an attempt to maximize the desired medicinal effect(s) of the compound. This development phase can take anywhere from a few years to a decade or more and is very expensive.
These new analogues need to be developed. It needs to be determined how safe the medicine is for human consumption, its stability in the human body and the best form for delivery to the desired organ system, like tablet or aerosol. After extensive testing, which can take up to 6 years, the new medicine is ready for marketing and selling.
As a result of the long time required to develop analogues and test a new medicine and the fact that of every 5000 potential new medicines typically only one will ever reach the open market, this is an expensive way of doing things, costing millions of dollars. To recoup this outlay pharmaceutical companies may do a number of things:
- Carefully research the demand for their potential new product before spending an outlay of company funds.
- Obtain a patent on the new medicine preventing other companies from producing that medicine for a certain allocation of time.
Drug legislation and safety
In the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the
Food and Drug AdministrationThe Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...
(FDA) is responsible for creating guidelines for the approval and use of drugs. The FDA requires that all approved drugs fulfill two requirements:
- The drug must be found to be effective against the disease for which it is seeking approval.
- The drug must meet safety criteria by being subject to extensive animal and controlled human testing.
Gaining FDA approval usually takes several years to attain. Testing done on animals must be extensive and must include several species to help in the evaluation of both the effectiveness and toxicity of the drug. The dosage of any drug approved for use is intended to fall within a range in which the drug produces a
therapeutic effectA therapeutic effect is a consequence of a medical treatment of any kind, the results of which are judged to be desirable and beneficial. This is true whether the result was expected, unexpected, or even an unintended consequence of the treatment...
or desired outcome.
The safety and effectiveness of prescription drugs in the U.S. is regulated by the federal
Prescription Drug Marketing Act of 1987The Prescription Drug Marketing Act of 1987 is a law of the United States federal government. It establishes legal safeguards for prescription drug distribution to ensure safe and effective pharmaceuticals. It's designed to discourage the sale of counterfeit, adulterated, misbranded, subpotent,...
.
The
Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory AgencyThe Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is the UK government agency which is responsible for ensuring that medicines and medical devices work and are acceptably safe....
(MHRA) has a similar role in the UK.
Education
The study of pharmacology is offered in many universities worldwide in programs that differ from pharmacy programs. Students of pharmacology are trained as researchers, studying the effects of substances in order to better understand the mechanisms which might lead to new drug discoveries for example. Whereas a pharmacy student will eventually work in a pharmacy dispensing medications or some other position focused on the patient, a pharmacologist will typically work within a laboratory setting.
See also
- Certain safety factor
The Certain Safety Factor is the ratio of the lethal dose to 1% of population to the effective dose to 99% of the population . This is a better safety index than the LD50 for materials that have both desirable and undesirable effects, because it factors in the ends of the spectrum where doses may...
- Cosmeceuticals
- Crude drugs
- Drug design
Drug design, also sometimes referred to as rational drug design or structure-based drug design, is the inventive process of finding new medications based on the knowledge of the biological target...
- Drug metabolism
Drug metabolism is the biochemical modification of pharmaceutical substances by living organisms, usually through specialized enzymatic systems. This is a form of xenobiotic metabolism. Drug metabolism often converts lipophilic chemical compounds into more readily excreted polar products...
- Drug Discovery Hit to Lead
Early drug discovery involves several phases from target identification to preclinical development. The identification of small molecule modulators of protein function and the process of transforming these into high-content lead series are key activities in modern drug discovery. The Hit-to-Lead...
- Enzyme inhibitor
An enzyme inhibitor is a molecule that binds to enzymes and decreases their activity. Since blocking an enzyme's activity can kill a pathogen or correct a metabolic imbalance, many drugs are enzyme inhibitors. They are also used as herbicides and pesticides...
s
- Herbalism
Herbalism is a traditional medicinal or folk medicine practice based on the use of plants and plant extracts. Herbalism is also known as botanical medicine, medical herbalism, herbal medicine, herbology, herblore, and phytotherapy...
- History of pharmacy
The history of pharmacy as an independent science is relatively young. The origins of historiography pharmaceutical back to the first third of the nineteenth century which is when the first historiographies that while not touching all aspects of pharmaceutical history is the starting point for the...
- International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology
The International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology is a voluntary, non-profit association representing the interests of scientists in pharmacology-related fields to facilitate Better Medicines through Global Education and Research around the world.-History:Established in 1959 as a section...
- Inverse benefit law
The Inverse Benefit Law states that the ratio of benefits to harms among patients taking new drugs tends to vary inversely with how extensively a drug is marketed...
- List of abbreviations used in medical prescriptions
- List of pharmaceutical companies
- List of withdrawn drugs
- Medicare Part D
Medicare Part D is a federal program to subsidize the costs of prescription drugs for Medicare beneficiaries in the United States. It was enacted as part of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 and went into effect on January 1, 2006.- Eligibility and...
- the new prescription drug plan in the U.S.
- Medication
A pharmaceutical drug, also referred to as medicine, medication or medicament, can be loosely defined as any chemical substance intended for use in the medical diagnosis, cure, treatment, or prevention of disease.- Classification :...
- Medicinal chemistry
Medicinal chemistry and pharmaceutical chemistry are disciplines at the intersection of chemistry, especially synthetic organic chemistry, and pharmacology and various other biological specialties, where it is involved with design, chemical synthesis and development for market of pharmaceutical...
- Medical School
A medical school is a tertiary educational institution—or part of such an institution—that teaches medicine. Degree programs offered at medical schools often include Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, Bachelor/Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Philosophy, master's degree, or other post-secondary...
- Neuropharmacology
Neuropharmacology is the study of how drugs affect cellular function in the nervous system. There are two main branches of neuropharmacology: behavioral and molecular. Behavioral neuropharmacology focuses on the study of how drugs affect human behavior , including the study of how drug dependence...
- The Molecular and Behavior study of Disease and Drugs in the Nervous System
- Neuropsychopharmacology
Neuropsychopharmacology is an interdisciplinary science related to psychopharmacology and fundamental neuroscience...
- The detailed comprehensive study of mind, brain and drugs.
- Nicholas Culpeper
Nicholas Culpeper was an English botanist, herbalist, physician, and astrologer. His published books include The English Physician and the Complete Herbal , which contain a rich store of pharmaceutical and herbal knowledge, and Astrological Judgement of Diseases from the Decumbiture of the Sick ,...
- 17th century English Physician who translated and used 'pharmacological texts'.
- Pharmaceutical company
The pharmaceutical industry develops, produces, and markets drugs licensed for use as medications. Pharmaceutical companies are allowed to deal in generic and/or brand medications and medical devices...
- Pharmaceutical formulation
Pharmaceutical formulation, in pharmaceutics, is the process in which different chemical substances, including the active drug, are combined to produce a final medicinal product.-Stages and timeline:...
- Pharmaceuticals and personal care products in the environment
The environmental impact of pharmaceuticals and personal care products is largely speculative. PPCPs are substances used by individuals for personal health or cosmetic reasons and the products used by agribusiness to boost growth or health of livestock. PPCPs have been detected in water bodies...
- Pharmacognosy
Pharmacognosy is the study of medicines derived from natural sources. The American Society of Pharmacognosy defines pharmacognosy as "the study of the physical, chemical, biochemical and biological properties of drugs, drug substances or potential drugs or drug substances of natural origin as well...
- Pharmacopoeia
Pharmacopoeia, pharmacopeia, or pharmacopoea, , in its modern technical sense, is a book containing directions for the identification of samples and the preparation of compound medicines, and published by the authority of a government or a medical or pharmaceutical society.In a broader sense it is...
- Pharmacotherapy
Pharmacotherapy is the treatment of disease through the administration of drugs. As such, it is considered part of the larger category of therapy....
- Pharmakeia
Pharmakeia is a Greek word that appears several times in the New Testament, including the Epistle to the Galatians and the Book of Revelation. It is frequently translated as "witchcraft" or "sorcery"....
- Pharmakos
A Pharmakós in Ancient Greek religion was a kind of human scapegoat who was chosen and expelled from the community at times of disaster or at times of calendrical crisis, when purification was needed...
- Placebo (origins of technical term)
- Prescription drug
A prescription medication is a licensed medicine that is regulated by legislation to require a medical prescription before it can be obtained. The term is used to distinguish it from over-the-counter drugs which can be obtained without a prescription...
- Prescription Drug Marketing Act (PDMA)
The Prescription Drug Marketing Act of 1987 is a law of the United States federal government. It establishes legal safeguards for prescription drug distribution to ensure safe and effective pharmaceuticals. It's designed to discourage the sale of counterfeit, adulterated, misbranded, subpotent,...
- Psychopharmacology
Psychopharmacology is the scientific study of the actions of drugs and their effects on mood, sensation, thinking, and behavior...
- medication for mental conditions
- Traditional Chinese Medicine
Traditional Chinese Medicine refers to a broad range of medicine practices sharing common theoretical concepts which have been developed in China and are based on a tradition of more than 2,000 years, including various forms of herbal medicine, acupuncture, massage , exercise , and dietary therapy...
External links