BY : Dr.Roshini Murugupillai

Pharmacology (Greek : pharmacon – drug ; logos – discourse in) It is the science of drugs It deals with interaction of exogenously administered chemical molecules (drugs ) with living systems It encompasses all aspects of knowledge about drugs Drug (French : drogue – a dry herb) It is the single active chemical entity present in a medicine that is used for diagnosis, prevention, treatment/cure of a disease WHO(1966) “drug is any substance or product that is used or is intended to be used to modify or explore physiological systems or pathological states for the benefit of the recipient”

Pharmacotherapeutics It is the application of pharmacodynamic information together with knowledge of the disease for its prevention, mitigation or cure Clinical pharmacology It is the scientific study of drugs in man Includes investigation in healthy volunteers & in patients Evaluation of efficacy & safety Comparative studies with other forms of treatment Surveillance of patterns of drug use, adverse effects, etc. Aim : to generate data for optimum use of dr ugs

Chemotherapy It is the treatment of systemic infection/malignancy with specific drugs that have selective toxicity for the infecting organism/malignant cell with no/minimal effects on the host cells Pharmacy It is the art & science of compounding and dispensing drugs or preparing suitable dosage forms for administration of drugs in man or animals. Pharmaceutics The large scale manufacture of drugs It is primarily a technological science

Discovery and development of drugs It will be obvious from the following account that drug development is an extremely arduous, highly technical and enormously expensive operation New drug development proceeds : Idea or hypothesis Design and synthesis of substances Studies on tissues and whole animal (Preclinical studies) Studies in man (Clinical studies) Grant of an official license to make therapeutic claims and to sell Post licensing (marketing) studies of safety and comparisons with other medicines

Compliance Willingness to follow a prescribed course of treatment Patient compliance Patient's correct following of medical advice. Most commonly it is a patient taking medication (drug compliance) Patients may not accurately report back to healthcare workers because fear of possible embarrassment, being chastised, or seeming to be ungrateful for a doctor's care. Causes for poor compliance include:  Forgetfulness  Prescription not collected or not dispensed  Purpose of treatment not clear  Perceived lack of effect  Real or perceived side-effects  Instructions for administration not clear  Physical difficulty in complying (e.g. opening medicine containers, handling small tablets, swallowing difficulties, travel to place of treatment)  Unattractive formulation, such as unpleasant taste  Complicated regimen  Cost of drugs

To improve the patient compliance, every patient needs to know the following basic details :  An account of the disease and the reason for prescribing  The name of the medicine  The objective To treat the disease To relieve symptom Prophylaxis  How and when to take the medicine  Whether it matters if a dose is missed and what, if anything to do about it  How long the medicine is likely to be needed  How to recognize adverse effects/any action that should be taken (effects on car driving, etc)  Any interaction with alcohol or other medicines Over compliance

Doctor compliance The extent to which the behaviour of doctors fulfils their professional duty Not to be ignorant To adopt new advances when they are sufficiently proved To prescribe accurately To tell patients what they need to know To warn of any untoward results