Portal:Pharmacy and Pharmacology
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THE PHARMACY and PHARMACOLOGY PORTAL
Welcome to the Pharmacy and Pharmacology Portal! The purpose of this page is to organize many of the pharmacology and drug-related articles on Wikipedia, to highlight some of the best articles, and to point out some of the recent activities and developments of WikiProject Pharmacology.
Pharmacology (in Greek: pharmacon (φάρμακον) meaning remedy, and logos (λόγος) meaning science) is the study of how substances interact with living organisms to produce a change in function. If substances have medicinal properties, they are considered pharmaceuticals. The field encompasses drug composition and properties, interactions, toxicology, therapies, medical applications, and antipathogenic capabilities.
Pharmacy (from the Greek φάρμακον = remedy) is a transitional field between the health sciences and the chemical sciences, as well as the profession charged with ensuring the safe use of medications. Traditionally, pharmacists have compounded and dispensed medications based on prescriptions from physicians. More recently, pharmacy has come to include other services related to patient care, including clinical practice, medication review, and drug information. Some of these new pharmaceutical roles are now mandated by law in various legislatures. Pharmacists, therefore, are drug therapy experts, and the primary health professionals who optimize medication management to produce positive health outcomes.
The field of pharmacy can generally be divided into three main disciplines:
- Pharmaceutics concerns on how to convert medication and drugs to suitable drug dosage forms.
- Pharmaceutical Sciences includes pharmaceutical chemistry, pharmacognosy, phytochemistry and pharmacology.
- Pharmacy practice concerns dispensing medication correctly. In the late 20th century, this field has developed into hospital pharmacy and clinical pharmacy. All of these fields are concentrated on optimizing patient care.
Inside every branch of pharmacy are many specialized branches related to many scientific disciplines. This makes pharmaceuticals related to the majority of pure and applied sciences. For example, medicinal chemistry can be divided into: ADME, bioavailability, chemogenomics, drug design, drug discovery, enzyme inhibition, mechanism of action, pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics, pharmacology, pharmacophore perception, Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationships, and Structure-Activity Relationships.
Biology (including molecular biology and biochemistry), physiology, organic chemistry, microbiology, parasitology, and also botany are all related in some way to the pharmaceutical sciences. Recently, the field of drug discovery and drug design has developed with new technologies invented in other fields, such as bioinformatics, cheminformatics, computational chemistry, genetics, pharmacogenomics, and proteomics.
Linezolid is a synthetic antibiotic used for the treatment of serious infections caused by Gram-positive bacteria that are resistant to several other antibiotics. A member of the oxazolidinone class of drugs, linezolid is active against most Gram-positive bacteria that cause disease, including streptococci, vancomycin-resistant enterococci, and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The main indications of linezolid are infections of the skin and soft tissues and pneumonia (particularly hospital-acquired pneumonia), although off-label use for a variety of other infections is becoming popular. Discovered in the late 1980s and first approved for use in 2000, linezolid was the first commercially available oxazolidinone antibiotic. As of 2009, it is the only marketed oxazolidinone, although others are in development. As a protein synthesis inhibitor, it stops the growth of bacteria by disrupting their production of proteins. Resistance to linezolid has remained very low since it was first detected in 1999, although it may be increasing. When administered for short periods, linezolid is a relatively safe drug; it can be used in patients of all ages and in people with liver disease or poor kidney function. (more...)
Featured pharmacology articles:
Antioxidant — Bupropion — Icos — Linezolid — Psilocybin — Sertraline — Treatment of multiple sclerosis — Water fluoridation
Good pharmacology articles:
Alprazolam — Aspirin — Benzodiazepine — Benzylpiperazine — CS gas — Clindamycin — Doxorubicin — Ethanol — Frances Oldham Kelsey — Heparin — History of aspirin — Homeopathy — Metformin — Midazolam — Nomenclature of monoclonal antibodies — Opium — Orlistat — Paracetamol toxicity — Percy Lavon Julian — Psychoactive drug — Receptor antagonist — Resveratrol — Selective glucocorticoid receptor agonist — Serotonin syndrome — Serpin — Vitamin C — Warfarin
Did you know ..
- ... that opium poppy (seed pod pictured) is the source of poppyseed oil, which has several pharmaceutical uses, none related to opium?
- ...that the anabolic steroid methandrostenolone was prescribed to women in the 1960s as a tonic, until its masculinising effects were discovered?
- ...that the Sri Lanka National Pharmaceuticals Policy was established in the 1970s to ensure that Sri Lankans could get high-quality, reasonably priced medications at correct dosages, and later became a model for national drug policies worldwide?
- ... that informed consent for Icos's experimental drug rovelizumab (LeukArrest) was waived during clinical trials if the patient was unconscious and had a high chance of dying?
- ...that 5-HT3 antagonists, effective for treating the nausea and vomiting due to chemotherapy, have no effect on motion sickness?
- ...that zuclopenthixol is a medication that can be given every two weeks to treat people suffering from schizophrenia who are unable to take tablets daily?
- ... that a Bird Flu pre-pandemic vaccine called Pandemrix was the first to be approved by the EU for the inoculation of populations in the early stages of a bird flu pandemic?
- ... that the sales of the "miracle drug" Energon, consisting of calf brain, sugar and milk, were able to establish Pharmacia as a major pharmaceutical company in Sweden in the early 1900s?
- ... that worldwide resistance to the antibiotic mecillinam is remarkably low, even though it has been widely used as a treatment for urinary tract infections since the 1970s?
- ... that Czech scientist Antonín Holý cooperated on the development of important antiretroviral drugs used in the treatment of HIV and hepatitis B?
Lists
- List of pharmacies
- List of pharmacy associations
- List of pharmacy organizations in the United Kingdom
- List of diseases
- List of drugs
- List of top selling drugs
- List of pharmaceutical companies
- List of pharmacy schools
- List of pharmacy schools in the United Kingdom
- List of universities in the United Kingdom
- List of pharmacy organizations in the United Kingdom
- List of medical schools in the United Kingdom
- List of American state universities
- List of medical schools
Featured picture
Branches
- Pharmaceutics and Industrial pharmacy: Including Pharmaceutical technology and Dermopharmacy and Cosmetics.
- Pharmaceutical Sciences : including Pharmaceutical chemistry , Pharmacognosy , Phytochemistry and Pharmacology.
- Pharmacy practice : which is primarily concerned with optimizing the use of medications in patient care. Examples include Hospital pharmacy and Clinical pharmacy.
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