.introduction to pharmacology

1. Pharmacology
By.
Dr. Haji Bahadar, PharmD,
PhD(Pharmacology)
Assistant Professor, IPMS-KMU

2. Basic definitions
 Pharmacology is the science of drugs and their effects on
biological systems. Mainly Pharmacology is related to the
pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamic, therapeutic uses, and
toxicology of drugs.
 Drug means any substance which exerts a physiological
effect on the cell, tissue, organ, or organism.
 Medicine: a medicine is the formulation of a drug into a
suitable dosage form intended to prevent, cure, or diagnose a
disease in proper dose.
 Dose means the amount of medicine taken
 Dosage form means the physical form of the medicines
(solids, liquids, gas etc.)

3. Basic definitions
• Over the counter (OTC)medicine means those medicines for which the
physician prescription is not required. For examples, analgesics, antacids.
• Analgesic means those medicines which are used for pain
• Antipyretics means those drugs which are used for fever
• Pharmacodynamics means the mechanism by which the drug exerts its effect.
For example, how aspirin work as analgesic.
• Pharmacokinetics means the movement of drugs in the body (absorption,
distribution, biotransformation, and excretion).
• Drug source means the origin of drug (natural, semisynthetic, synthetic etc.
natural sources of drug are plants, minerals, animals, and microbes.
Plants: Morphine-Pilocarpine, digoxin).
Animals: Insulin.
Minerals: Iron, aluminium, sodium chloride
Microorganisms: Antibiotics.

4. • Iontophoresis means a technique which uses an electric
current to deliver a medicine. Common uses for
iontophoresis are to decrease inflammation, decrease pain,
decrease muscle spasm, decrease swelling and edema.
• Phonophoresis means the use of ultrasound to enhance the
delivery of topically applied drugs.
• Idiosyncratic means unexpected drug reaction
• Teratogenic means harmful effects of drugs on the fetus
• Synergism means when the combination of drugs increase
the effect
• Antagonism means when the combination of drugs
decreases the effects
• Patient compliance: the extent to which the patient follows
the clinical prescription.

5. Basic definitions
• Pharmacopoeia is an official publication, containing a list of medicinal drugs with their
effects and directions for their use. BP: British Pharmacopoeia. USP: United States
Pharmacopeia

6. • Active ingredient means biologically active substance which produce
effect
• Efficacy means maximum effect that a drug can produce regardless of
dose.
• Potency means amount of a drug that is needed to produce a given effect
• Bioavailability is the degree to which or the proportion of the drug that is
available to the site of action or target tissue to produce the desired effect.
• Half-life (t1/2) is the time taken by the plasma concentration of the drug
to decrease by 50%, or reach half of the original concentration. Initially, If
a drug has plasma concentration of100 mg/ml and after passing 2 hours
it reduces to 50 mg/ml, then the half life would be????..
• Biological Half life: the time that a living body requires to eliminate one
half the quantity of an administered substance.
• Prophylactic agent is any drug that prevents a disease or illness from
occurring (vaccines)

7. • Therapeutic effect : A drug is given to produce a desired
effect on the body, either to treat a disease or to relieve
symptoms. This is referred to as a drug’s therapeutic effect.
• Side effect is an unintended response to a drug
• Tolerance is a decrease in the pharmacological response to a
drug that occurs with continued administration
• The therapeutic index (TI): it is the range of doses at which a
medication is effective without serious adverse effects (250-
500 mg)
• Narrow therapeutic index drugs: Narrow therapeutic index
(NTI) drugs are agents for which small changes in dose or
concentration in blood can lead to significant changes in
response. Digoxin therapeutic effect: of 0.5–1 ng/mL and
toxic level: 2 ng/mL

8. Drug nomenclature
• Drug nomenclature is the systematic naming
of drugs
• Drugs have a chemical name, a generic name,
and a brand name
• Drugs chemical names are given by IUPAC,
generic names by (USAN) and brand name by
manufacturer
•

9. Chemical name Structure Generic name Brand name
N-acetyl-para-
aminophenol
Paracetamol, also
known as
acetaminophen
Panadol
Acetylsalicylic acid Aspirin Dispirin
dimethylphenylami
nobenzoic acid
Mefanamic acid Ponstan

10. Thank you, have a good day