What is pharmacology ?

Pharmacology is the branch of  pharmacy  in which study about the action of drugs on the human body and animals. 

Pharmacology is a branch of pharmaceutical sciences which is concerned with the study of drug or medication action.

it is the study of the interactions that occur between a living organism and chemicals that affect normal or abnormal biochemical function. 

                          Etymology

Pharmacology (from Greek pharmacon means drug, Logos means studied in, i.e., studies in drugs )is the study of drug action. 

         Division of pharmacology

1. Experimental pharmacology: Done in the laboratory on experimental animal such as rodents and non rodents.

2. Clinical pharmacology: study on human being normal or decreased.

Types on the basis of working of drugs.

1.pharmacokinetics :it is the study of bodily absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of drugs.

When describing the pharmacokinetic properties of the chemical that is the active ingredient or active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), pharmacologists are often interested in ADME:

• Absorption – How is the drugs absorbed (through the skin, the intestine, the oral mucosa)?
• Distribution – How does the drugs spread through the organism?
• Metabolism – Is the drugs converted chemically inside the body, and into which substances. And where the drug converted in which organ in the body.
• Excretion – How is the drug excreted through the bile, urine, breath, skin.

Drug metabolism is assessed in pharmacokinetics and is important in drug research and prescribing.

2. Pharmacodynamics: It is that aspect of pharmacology which deals with qualitative and quantitative aspect of drug reaction.

( Greek:Pharmacon drug;  Dynamics- power)

What the drug does to the body.

This include physiological and biochemical effect of drug and their mechanism of action at organ system /subcellular /macromolecular levels.

         Scope of pharmacology

1. Chemotherapy: it is the treatment of systematic infection/malignancy with specific drugs that have selective toxicity for the infecting organism/malignant cell with no minimal effects on the host cells.
2. Toxicology: it is the science of poisons. Poisons are substance that cause harmful dangerous or fatal symptoms in animal and human beings. Many drugs in larger dose act as poisons.
3. Pharmacotherapeutics: it is a branch of medicine concerned with cure of disease or relief of symptoms, it included drug treatment.
4. Clinical pharmacology: To conduct the clinical trials for new drugs intended to be introduced in the market.
5. Iatrogenic Disease (caused by doctors): This disese produced by drugs prescribed by doctor's.
6. Therapeutic Index: It indicates relative margin of safety of a drug and it is expressed as a ratio between toxic dose and therapeutically effective dose.
7. Biological Half Life : The half life of the drug is the time in hours required to reduce the drug concentration in the blood.It helps in calculating the frequency of drug administration.  
8.  Pharmacoepidemiology:It is defined as the study of the use of end effects of drugs in large number of people. It is the study of adverse drug reaction .

         Regulatory agencies

Central drug standard control organization (CDSCO)Ministry of Health & family welfare Government of India provide general information about drug in India .

In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for creating guidelines for the approval and use of drugs. The FDA requires that all approved drugs fulfill two requirements:

1. The drug must be found to be effective against the disease for which it is seeking approval (where 'effective' means only that the drug performed better than placebo or competitors in at least two trials).
2. The drug must meet safety criteria by being subject to animal and controlled human testing.

     Pharmacology is crucial for :

• discovering new medicines to help ight diseases
• improving the effectiveness of medicines
• reducing unwanted side effects of medicines
• understanding why individuals differ in the way they respond to certain drugs, and why some others cause addiction

Pharmacology lies at the heart of biomedical science, linking together chemistry, physiology and pathology. Pharmacologists work closely with a wide variety of other disciplines that make up modern biomedical science, including neuroscience, molecular and cell biology, immunology and cancer biology.

Pharmacological knowledge improves the lives of millions of people across the world. It maximises their benefit and minimises risk and harm.

     Instrument used in pharmacology practical