4.1 What Is the Scope of Pharmacology?
In its broadest sense, pharmacology includes the study of drugs and how they work. It encompasses specialized scientific disciplines, including the following:
therapeutics—appropriate use of drugs for targeted medicinal purposes
pharmacodynamics—biochemical, physiologic, and molecular effects of drugs on the body
toxicology—symptoms, detection and treatment of poisonous effects and side effects
pharmaceutics—various dosage forms and routes of administration and their drug-releasing capabilities
pharmacokinetics—movement of drugs within the body: absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination (ADME) of drugs from the body, and harmful drug interactions
pharmacognosy—natural sources of drugs and herbs
Put Down Roots
Pharmacology comes from the Greek word pharmakon, or “drug,” and the Latin suffix logia, or “study of.” Toxicology, then, is the study of toxikon—“arrow poison” in Greek—or poisons.
Customers trust their pharmacists for up-to-date information about drugs, and the pharmacists depend upon their technicians to know how to help fill patient prescriptions.
This chapter will present some aspects of the therapeutics, pharmacodynamics, and toxicology of common drugs and their classes. The pharmacokinetics of drugs are less applicable to a technician’s work and will not be addressed in this book. There will, however, be mention of some of the ways these drugs are administered and their dosage forms (pharmaceutics). Greater explanation of pharmaceutics will be offered in the next chapter (Chapter 5). You will also find an introduction to common herbal medicines, supplements, and vitamins (pharmacognosy) in Chapter 9.
It takes pharmacists numerous years of studying the basic and applied elements of pharmacology for thousands of drugs before they can even begin to practice. That is why patient questions about drugs must always be directed to the pharmacist. However, the more you know, the more confidence you will have in performing the expanding role of a pharmacy technician.