PHARMACOLOGY IN PT I PT 112

BS Physical Therapy

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Objectives
At the end of the session, the student will be able to:
1. Discuss about drug nomenclature
2. Identify what constitutes as drug
3. Knowledgeable on the basic concepts in drug therapy
4. Enumerate the elements of drug safety

BASIC PRINCIPLES OF
PHARMACOLORY

INTRODUCTION

PHARMACOLOGY
▪ Pharmacology is the study of drugs
▪ Drugs → “any substance that, when taken into
a living organism, may modify one or more of
its functions.”
▪ A drug includes any substance that alters
physiologic function in the organism, regardless TOXICOLOGY
of whether the effect is beneficial or harmful.
▪ In terms of clinical pharmacology, it has ▪ Toxicology is the study of the harmful effects
traditionally been the beneficial or therapeutic of chemicals
effects that have been of special interest. ▪ Although it can be viewed as a subdivision of
pharmacology, toxicology has evolved into a
PHARMACOTHERAPEUTICS separate area of study because of the scope of
all the therapeutic agents’ adverse effects as
▪ Area of pharmacology that refers to the use of well as environmental toxins and poisons
specific drugs to prevent, treat, or diagnose a
disease. PHARMACY

PHARMACOKINETICS ▪ Pharmacy deals with the preparation and

dispensing of medications
▪ The study of how the body deals with the drug ▪ Although pharmacy is also frequently
in terms of the way it is absorbed, distributed, considered a subdivision of pharmacology, this
and eliminated. area has evolved into a distinct professional
discipline.
PHARMACODYNAMICS
▪ Pharmacodynamics is the analysis of what the
drug does to the body, including the mechanism
by which the drug exerts its effect.

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 DRUG NOMENCLATURE
▪ Chemical names → refer to the specific
compound’s structure and are usually fairly long
and cumbersome
▪ Generic name (also known as the “official” or
“nonproprietary” name) → tends to be somewhat
shorter and is often derived from the chemical
name.
▪ Trade name (also known as the brand name) →
is assigned to the compound by the
pharmaceutical company and may or may not
bear any reference at all to the chemical and
generic terminology
DEVELOPMENT AND APPROVAL OF
THERAPEUTIC AGENTS
DRUG APPROVAL PROCESS
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BASIC CONCEPTS IN DRUG THERAPY
▪ All drugs exert their beneficial effects by
reaching some specific target cell or tissue
▪ On the cellular level, the drug in some way
changes the function of the cell either to help
restore normal physiologic function or to prevent
a disease process from occurring
▪ DOSE of a drug must be large enough to allow
an adequate concentration to reach the target
site, thus producing a beneficial response
▪ DOSAGE must not be so excessive that
toxicologic effects are produced
DOSE-RESPONSE CURVES AND MAXIMAL
EFFICACY
1. Typically, very low doses do not produce
any observable effect
2. At some threshold dose, the response begins
to occur and continues to increase in
magnitude before reaching a plateau
3. The plateau in the response indicates that
there will be no further increment in the
response even if the dosage continues to be
increased
4. The point at which there is no further
increase in the response is known as ceiling
effect, or maximal efficacy, of the drug
POTENCY
▪ Potency is related to the dose that produces a
given response in a specific amplitude
▪ When two drugs are compared, the more
potent drug requires a lower dose to produce
the same effect as a higher dose of the second
drug
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 ▪ In animal studies, the toxic effect studied is often
the death of the animal
▪ In these cases, high doses of the drug are used
to determine the median lethal dose (LD50)—the
dose that causes death in 50 percent of the
animals studied

THERAPEUTIC INDEX

▪ The median effective and toxic doses are used

to determine the therapeutic index (TI).24 The TI
is calculated as the ratio of the TD50 to the ED50:

ELEMENTS OF DRUG SAFETY

QUANTAL DOSE-RESPONSE CURES AND THE

MEDIAN EFFECTIVE DOSE ▪ In animal studies in which the median lethal dose
is known, the TI is often calculated using the LD50
in place of the TD50
▪ In either human or animal studies, the TI is used
as an indicator of the drug’s safety
▪ The greater the value of the TI, the safer the
drug is considered to be
▪ In essence, a large TI indicates that it takes a
much larger dose to evoke a toxic response than
it does to cause a beneficial effect

MEDIAN EFFECTIVE DOSE ED50

▪ This is the dose at which 50 percent of the
population respond to the drug in a specified
manner.

MEDIAN TOXIC DOSE

▪ As dosages of the drug continue to be
increased, however, adverse or toxic effects
may become apparent
▪ As the dosage is increased, more and more
individuals will then begin to exhibit that
particular adverse effect
▪ The dose at which 50 percent of the group
exhibits the adverse effect is termed the median
toxic dose (TD50)

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