Pharmacology is the study of how drugs interact with living organisms. It involves studying the physicochemical properties, mechanisms of action, absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of drugs, as well as their clinical uses and adverse effects. Pharmacology has two main divisions: pharmacodynamics, which is what the drug does to the body, and pharmacokinetics, which is what the body does to the drug. The scope of pharmacology includes areas like chemotherapy, toxicology, therapeutics, pharmacoeconomics, pharmacogenomics, pharmacoepidemiology, pharmacotherapeutics, pharmacovigilance, and clinical pharmacology.

1. Introduction of
pharmacology
Ms. Gunjan verma
(Lecturer)

2. Pharmacology
The word pharmacology is derived from the Greek
word:
‘Pharmacon’ means an active principle(drug)
‘logos’ means a study
Pharmacology is the study of interaction of drugs
with living organisms. It also includes
physicochemical properties, methods of
administration, absorption, distribution, mechanism
of action, biotransformation, excretion, clinical uses
and adverse effects of drugs.
Drug is a substance used in the diagnosis,
prevention or treatment of a disease.

3. The two main divisions of pharmacology are
pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics.
Pharmacodynamics (Greek: dynamics—power)
What the drug does to the body.
This includes physiological and biochemical effects
of drugs and their mechanism of action in our body.
Pharmacokinetics (Greek: Kinesis—movement)
What the body does to the drug.
This includes absorption, distribution,
biotransformation (metabolism) and
excretion(ADME) of the drug.

4. Scope of pharmacology
1)Chemotherapy- The use of chemical agent
in the treatment of infectious disease is called
as chemotherapy.
2) Toxicology- It deals with the adverse
effects of drugs and also the study of poisons.
3) Therapeutics- It deals with the use of
drugs in the prevention and treatment of
disease.

5. 4) Pharmacoeconomics- It deals with the cost,
i.e. economic aspects of drugs used
therapeutically.
5) Pharmacogenomics- It is a branch of
pharmacogenetics which deals with the use of
genetic information in selecting drugs for a person.
6)Pharmacoepidemiology- It is the study of both
the useful and adverse effects of drugs on large
numbers of people.

6. 7) Pharmacotherapeutics- It deals with the
proper selection and use of drugs for the
prevention and treatment of disease.
8) Pharmacovigilance- It is a branch of
pharmacoepidemiology which deals with the study
of adverse drug effects.
9) Clinical Pharmacology- It evaluate the
pharmacological action of drug preferred route of
administration and safe dosage range in human by
clinical trails.

7. Important Questions
1. Define pharmacology.
2. What is pharmacodynamics?
3. What is pharmacokinetics?
4. Explain briefly the scope of
pharmacology.

8. Thank you