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• Pharmacology= pharmacy (which means drugs) + logos (science)
• Drug: It is any chemical substance that affects living processes (physiological and
biochemical processes). It modifies an already existing function, by either increasing
the function’s rate and effect or decreasing it. The drug does not create a new
function.
o For example: an individual suffering a deficiency in a specific enzyme, if the
enzyme is not produced there is no drug that can recreate the enzyme, but if
the enzyme was weak the drug enhances its effect.
• Pharmacology: the science of drugs, it is the knowledge of history, source (nature or
manufactured), physical and chemical properties, absorption, distribution,
biotransformation (metabolism), excretion, actions, therapeutic uses of drugs (or
toxic effects on microbes) and side effects.
o As doctors we don’t care too much about all the details concerning a specific
drug, what we care most about is when the drug enters the body.
• Medical (Clinical) Pharmacology: is the science that deals with the use of drugs for
diagnosis, prevention and treatment of human disease (underlined =
pharmacotherapeutics).
• Toxicology: is the aspect of pharmacology which deals adverse effects of drugs and
toxic effects produced by household, industrial, and enviromental elements.
o Toxins (poisons) are Drugs, why???
Because they modify body functions.
• Genral Principles:
1. All substances can be toxic under certain circumistances, even water!!
2. All dietary supplements and all substances promoted as health‐enhancing
should meet the same standards of efficacy and safety:
o Drugs are developed for many years through number of stages under
strict standards:
a. Animals: some experiments are applied on different species of
animals which vary in size and other properties.
b. Human research: when the drug reaches a certain point of
development that it is thought to be compatible with humans, this
step begins as follows:
Normal healthy volunteers, then
Patient volunteers (after taking their permission), then
Patients in general
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c. Marketing:
most of the adverse effects start to show up in this stage,
why?? Let’s take an example: a certain side effect has a
possibility of 1/1000 to be seen, but in the human
research stage the experiment was on 20 or 30 normal
volunteers, then on 500 patient volunteers, then on 400
to 500 patients. Though this seems to be enough, most
likely we won’t discover the side effect till marketing
begins.
To be licensed for marketing, a drug has to go with the
following condition: the drug is beneficial and relatively
unharmful. That means that the drug’s benefit has to be
more, much more, than its side effects and toxicity. It
means also that there is no perfect drug, all drugs have
certain degree of toxicity. Ofcourse high‐toxicity drugs
will not be licensed and destine to withdrawl.
o Anecdote (anecdotal): is the act of giving someone a substance as a
drug for a certain disease, not depending on scientific researches, but
on self experience. The scientific value of this act is 0 to 5 in a scale of
100.
• Pharmacogenomics: the relation between the individual’s genetic makup to his/her
response to specific drugs (entire genome)
• Pharmacogenetics: interindividual variation in drug response that is due to genetic
influence (specific gene)
o Pharmacogenetics is included in pharmacogenomics: genomics
include all the individual’s genes, genetics include a certain gene only.
o Pharmacogentics and genomics are considered to be the same most
of the time.
• Adeverse effects are divided into:
1. Predictable:
They are dose related
For example: a drug increases the GI secretion, we expect ulcer in
stomach, maybe diarrhea, on the contrary if it decreases we expect
constipation.
Another example: a drug increases the heart rate, we expect
tachicardia.
2. Unpredictable (unusual)
Not dose related
The result of its use is idiosycratic drug response
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• Idiosyncratic drug response: Unusual response, infrequently observed in most
patients. Usually caused by gentic differnces in metabolism of drug, or by
immunologic mechanisms including allergic reactions (such as anaphylaxis)
• Tolerance: is a decrease in responsivness to the drug with continuous usage.
• Tachephylaxis: tolerance which occurs faster.
Best wishes
Hamza Jassar
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