Pharmacology can be defined as the study of substances that interact with living systems through chemical processes, especially by binding to regulatory molecules and activating or inhibiting normal body processes. These substances may be chemicals administered to achieve a beneficial therapeutic effect on some process within the patient or for their toxic effects on regulatory processes in parasites infecting the patient. The field encompasses drug composition and properties, synthesis and drug design, molecular and cellular mechanisms, organ/systems mechanisms, signal transduction/cellular communication, molecular diagnostics,interactions , toxicology , chemical biology, therapy, and medical applications and antipathogenic capabilities. The two main areas of pharmacology are pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics . Pharmacokinetics refers to what the body does to a drug, whereas pharmacodynamics describes what the drug does to the body.
Pharmacology is not synonymous with pharmacy and the two terms are frequently confused. Pharmacology, a biomedical science, deals with the study of drugs, how they interact, what side effects they cause, indications, etc. In contrast, Pharmacy, a practice based profession, deals with the monitoring of drugs as well as disease states being treated, monitoring drug outcomes, managing patient compliance and so forth.
SUB DISCIPLINES IN PHARMACOLOGY
Clinical pharmacology
Clinical pharmacology is the basic science of pharmacology with an added focus on the application of pharmacological principles and methods in the medical clinic and towards patient care and outcomes.
Neuropharmacology
Neuropharmacology is the study of the effects of medication on central and peripheral nervous system functioning.
Psychopharmacology
Psychopharmacology , also known as behavioral pharmacology, is the study of the effects of medication on the psyche (psychology) , observing changed behaviors of the body and mind, and how molecular events are manifest in a measurable behavioral form.
Cardiovascular pharmacology
Cardiovascular pharmacology is the study of the effects of drugs on the entire cardiovascular system, including the heart and blood vessels.
Pharmacogenetics
Pharmacogenetics is clinical testing of genetic variation that gives rise to differing response to drugs.
Pharmacogenomics
Pharmacogenomics is the application of genomic technologies to drug discovery and further characterization of older drugs.
Pharmacoepidemiology
Pharmacoepidemiology is the study of the effects of drugs in large numbers of people.
Systems pharmacology
Systems pharmacology is the application of systems biology principles to the field of pharmacology.
Toxicology
Toxicology is the study of the adverse effects , molecular targets, and characterization of drugs or any chemical substance in excess (including those beneficial in lower doses).
Theoretical pharmacology
Theoretical pharmacology is a relatively new and rapidly expanding field of research activity in which many of the techniques of computational chemistry, in particular computational quantum chemistry and the method of molecular mechanics, are proving to be of great value.
Posology
Posology is the study of how medicines are dosed. It also depends upon various factors including age, climate, weight, sex, and time of administration.
Pharmacognosy
Pharmacognosy is a branch of pharmacology dealing especially with the composition, use, and development of medicinal substances of biological origin and especially medicinal substances obtained from plants.
Environmental pharmacology
Environmental pharmacology is a new discipline. Focus is being given to understand gene–environment interaction, drug-environment interaction and toxin-environment interaction.
Dental pharmacology
Dental pharmacology relates to the study of drugs commonly used in the treatment of dental disease.
Reference; Wikipedia
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