INTRODUCTION TO PHARMACOLOGY

MR. Chanda. P.

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General objective
To equip students with knowledge on the
history pharmacology and the common
terminologies used in pharmacology.

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Specific objectives
At the end of this lecture/discussion students
should be able to:
 Define pharmacology
Explain common terminologies used in
pharmacology
 Statethe brief historical development of
pharmacology

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DEFINITIONS
PHARMACOLOGY is a science that
deals with the origin, nature chemistry,
effects and uses of drugs; it includes
pharmacognosy, pharmacokinetics,
pharmacodynamics,
pharmacotherapeutics and toxicology.
Patricia D.Novan (2009).

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Cont.
PHARMACOLOGY- the science of
drugs including their origin, composition,
pharmacokinetics and toxicology.
(Webster dictionary N.D.)

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Cont.
PHARMACOLOGY is a branch of
medicine and biology concerned with the
study of drug action where a drug can be
defined as any man made, natural or
endogeneous molecule which exerts a
biochemical and/or physiological effect
on the cell, tissue, organ or organism.

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Cont.
DRUG- a chemical substance that affects
the processes of the mind or body.
Patricia D.Novan (2009).
Any chemical compound used in the
diagnosis, treatment or prevention of
disease or any other abnormal condition.
Patricia D.Novan (2009).

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Cont.
Pharmacy- the branch of health science
dealing with the preparation, dispensing
and proper utilization of drugs.
Pharmaceutical- patterning to pharmacy
or drugs.
Pharmacist-one who is licensed to
prepare and sell or dispense drugs and
compounds, and to make up prescriptions.

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Cont.
Pharmacology is usually subdivided into
general and specialized.
General pharmacology investigates the
gross action of medicines.
Special pharmacology deals with concrete
pharmacological groups and individual
preparations.

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Cont.
The most attention in both
subdivisions is given to
pharmacokinetics and
pharmacodynamics of the medicinal
preparations.

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PHARMACOKINETICS.
The action of dugs in the body over a period
of time, including the process of absorption,
distribution, localization in tissues,
biotransformation and excretion. Patricia
D. Novan (2009).
Pharmacokinetics is a part of
pharmacology studying absorption,
distribution in the body, metabolism and
excretion of the medicines.
Its about how the body deals with the drug.
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Cont.
Pharmacokinetics helps us to understand
what are the factors that determine the
maintenance of a therapeutically useful
level in the blood stream.
It investigates the following:

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Cont.
The dose: how much of the drug should
be used to get the desired effect without
getting the un wanted effects.
Route of administration: by what route
should the drug be administered?

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Cont.
The absorption and distribution: how is
the drug absorbed and compartmentalized
in the body, e.g does most of it dissolve in
the aqueous(water) or lipid (fatty)
compartments

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PHARMACODYNAMICS
The study of the biochemical and
physiological effects of drugs and the
mechanisms of their actions including the
correlations of their actions and effects
with their chemical effects.
It is the study of how the chemicals exert
their effects
It makes possible the design of new and
better drugs.
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Pediatric consideration in drug
administration
Children have a higher risk of toxicity by
because of inefficient renal filtration,
relative enzyme deficiencies, differing
target organ sensitivity and inadequate
detoxifying systems system causing
delayed excretion.

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Geriatric considerations
Elderly patients are usually at a greater
risk of adverse reactions to drugs and
interactions because of multiple drug
therapy for their multiple diseases.
Manifestations of normal aging processes
in the very old patients are sometimes
mistaken for disease lead to inappropriate
drug prescriptions.

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Cont.
E.g drugs such as prochlorperazine are
commonly giddiness due to age related loss
of postural stability.
Self medications with drugs previously
prescribed for a previous illness or even for
another person may be an added
complication.
The aging nervous system shows increased
susceptibility to many commonly used drugs
such as benzodiazipines or opioid analgesics.
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HISTORY OF PHARMACOLOGY
Pharmacology is as old as human kind.
Developments in pharmacology tended to
occur during periods of rapid
socioeconomic change.
In primitive societies, plants served as
medicines.
People observed and mimicked the
behaviour of animals or discovered some
curable properties of plants by accident.
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Cont.
This period in pharmacology is commonly
called the empirical period.
Gradually, healing became the privilege of
clergymen, who attributed the power of
medicines to divine strength.
This time is known as empirical-mystical
period.
During the feudal period, which coincided with
a general decline in science and culture, progress
in pharmacology and medicine ground to a halt.

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Cont.
Medical art was in the domain of monks who
preached scholasticism, a religious-idealistic
philosophy of the Middle Ages.
The effects of medicines were related to the
position of the moon, constellations and
planets.
Astrology became an integral part of medicine.
This period of the history of medicine and
pharmacology is usually referred to as
religious-scholastic period.
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Cont.
Pharmacology as a science began with the
formation of large nation states and
significant economic development of the
18th and 19th century.
First, experimental methodology was
introduced for the analysis and the
determination of action of medicinal
preparations.

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Cont.
Extraction technique were developed, which,
for example, allowed pharmacologists to
obtain alkaloids from various plants.
Pharmacology was particularly advanced
with the development of synthetic
preparations.
These developments gradually led to the
formation of the chemical-pharmaceutical
industry.

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Cont.
Pharmacology is one of the corner stones
of the drug discovery process.
The medicinal chemist may create the
candidate compound, but the
pharmacologist is the one who tests it
physiological activity.
A promising compound is tested by many
scientists, but only after the pharmacologist
has documented a therapeutic effect it will
just be a compound.
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Cont.
Synthetic organic chemistry was born in
1828, when Fredrick Wholer synthesized
urea from inorganic substances and
demolished the vital force theory.
The birth date of pharmacology is not
very clear.
In the 19th century physiologists
performed many pharmacologic studies.

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Cont.
Francois Magedie studied the action of
nux vomica ( a strychnine containing
plant drug) on dogs and demonstrated
that the spinal cord was the site of its
convulsant action, in 1809.
In 1942, Claude Bernard discovered that
the arrow poison curare acts at the
neuromuscular junction to interrupt the
stimulation of muscle by nerve impulses

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Cont.
However it is said that pharmacology
emerged as a separate science only when
the first university chair was established
in 1847, when Rudolf Bucheim was
appointed professor of pharmacology at
the university of Dorpat in Estonia.

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Cont.
Although Bucheim is credited with
turning a purely descriptive and empirical
study of medicines into an experimental
science his reputation is over shadowed
by the works of his student Oswald
Schmeidberg (1838-1921) who is
generally recognized as the founder of
modern pharmacology.

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Cont.
In his 46 years of work at strassburg,
schmeideberg trained most of the men
who later became professors at other
universities in Germany and in several
foreign countries.
He was largely responsible for the
preeminence of the German
pharmaceutical industry.

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Cont.
In the U.S.A. the first chair in
pharmacology was established in 1890 at
the university of Michigan under John
Jacob Able, an American who was trained
by schmiedeberg.
In 1893 Able went to John Hopkins
university were he ad a long and brilliant
career.

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Cont.
His major accomplishment include the
isolation of epinephrine from adrenal
glands extracts (1897-1898), isolation of
histamine from pituitary extracts(1919)
and preparation of pure crystalline insulin
(1926).
His student Reid Hunt discovered
acetylcholine in adrenal extracts in 1906.

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Cont.
Today there is a department of
pharmacology in every college of
medicine or pharmacy

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Cont.
Pharmacology largely depends on
experiments conducted on laboratory
animals, although human beings may also
be used as test subjects.

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Assignment

 Read and make note on the routes of

drug administration.

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Cont.

The end.

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