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Pharmacology:

It is the science that deals with the study of drugs, including their origin, nature, chemistry, uses and beneficial and adverse effects. It includes the study of substances that bind to regulatory molecules and activate or inhibit normal body processes.

A Brief Historical Perspective of Pharmacology:

Ancient people used many plants and animals in an attempt to cure diseases. But they knew nothing about the chemistry or action of the actual substance. They also lacked the resources and systems to experiment and evaluate the action of drugs on large scales. Some people also practised very bizarre methods without any rational basis. 

Around the 17th century, reliance on observation and experimentation began to replace theorizing in medicine. The science of preparation and medical use of drugs at that time was called materia medica (Latin means medical matter). In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Francois Magendie and Claude Bernard began to develop methods of experimentation in the fields of physiology and pharmacology. 

Slow modifications kept on going in the use of drugs later. In the past 50-60 years, however, there were tremendous advancements in this field. New molecular discoveries utterly changed the concepts of drug therapies. Now, materia medica is called pharmacology (derived from Greek words, pharmakos meaning "drug" and logos meaning "study or reasoning"). Today, we know much about the nature, chemistry and actions of drugs. Drug use or disuse is now based on its beneficial and harmful effects studied on animals and humans on large scales. Today we have resources to investigate about the molecular basis of the disease, which can enable us to use and discover the appropriate drugs. Newer methods and therapies are being discovered very fast these days.

Branches of Pharmacology:

Pharmacology can be divided into various branches. Its major branches are given below:

➣ Pharmacokinetics:

Pharmacokinetics is what our body does to a drug. It includes the study of absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion of drugs and their relationship with the onset, duration, and intensity of the drug effect.

➣ Pharmacodynamics:

Pharmacodynamics is what a drug does to our body. It includes the study of mechanism of action of a drug, the relation between drug concentration and its therapeutic effect and the physical and chemical effects of drugs on our body, parasites and micro-organisms.

➣ Therapeutics/Pharmacotherapeutics:

It the branch of pharmacology that deals with the art and science of treatment of diseases. It is the application of pharmacological information together with the knowledge of disease, for the prevention and cure of disease.

➣ Chemotherapy:

In this branch, we study the treatment of diseases by chemicals that kill the cells, especially those of micro-organisms and neoplastic cells.

➣ Toxicology:

In this branch, we study the adverse effects of drugs on the body. It deals with the symptoms, mechanisms, treatment and detection of poisoning caused by different chemical substances.

For toxicology, main criterion is the dose. A medicine in high dose can be a poison while a poison in low dose can be a medicine.

➣ Clinical Pharmacology:

It is the use of drugs in the clinical routine. Main objectives are:

• to maximize the effect of drug
• to minimize the adverse effects
• to generate optimum data for use of drugs, and
• to promote the usage of evidence-based medicine

➣ Pharmacy:

It is the branch of pharmacology that deals with the study of preparation, compounding and dispensing of different drugs.

➣ Pharmacognosy:

It deals with the study of properties of drugs in crude or unprepared forms.

➣ Pharmacoeconomics:

It is the study of economic factors regarding the cost of drug therapies, including their impact on healthcare system and society.

➣ Pharmacogenetics/Pharmacogenomics:

It deals with the study of genetic variations that cause difference in drug response among different individuals.

➣ Pharmacoepidemiology:

It deals with the study of effects of drugs on a large population. It includes trial studies on healthy and diseased individuals and collecting the opinion of physicians prescribing a drug.

➣ Comparative Pharmacology:

It deals with the comparison of different drugs of same or different uses.

➣ Posology:

It deals with the study of dosage of drugs.

➣ Animal Pharmacology:

It deals with different properties of drugs in animals.

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