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A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal product, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Drug therapy ( pharmacotherapy ) is an important part of the medical field and relies on the science of pharmacology for continual advancement and on ...
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States is a federal agency responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the regulation and supervision of food safety, tobacco products, dietary supplements, prescription and over-the-counter medications, vaccines, biopharmaceuticals, blood transfusions, medical devices ...
It is a contraction of the Latin word "recipe" (an imperative form of "recipere") meaning "take". [1] Prescription drugs are often dispensed together with a monograph (in Europe, a Patient Information Leaflet or PIL) that gives detailed information about the drug. The use of prescription drugs has been increasing since the 1960s.
Drug nomenclature is the systematic naming of drugs, especially pharmaceutical drugs.In the majority of circumstances, drugs have 3 types of names: chemical names, the most important of which is the IUPAC name; generic or nonproprietary names, the most important of which are international nonproprietary names (INNs); and trade names, which are brand names. [1]
When used appropriately, formularies can help manage drug costs imposed on the insurance policy. [7] However, for drugs that are not on formulary, patients must pay a larger percentage of the cost of the drug, sometimes 100%. Formularies vary between drug plans and differ in the breadth of drugs covered and costs of co-pay and premiums.
Potency of drug is the measure of its effectiveness, EC 50 is the drug concentration of a drug that produces an efficacy of 50% and the lower the concentration the higher the potency of the drug therefore EC 50 can be used to compare potencies of drugs. Medication is said to have a narrow or wide therapeutic index, certain safety factor or ...
A drug class is a group of medications and other compounds that share similar chemical structures, act through the same mechanism of action (i.e., binding to the same biological target), have similar modes of action, and/or are used to treat similar diseases.
This assists the pharmacist in checking for errors as many common medications can be used for multiple medical conditions. Some prescriptions will specify whether and how many "repeats" or "refills" are allowed; that is whether the patient may obtain more of the same medication without getting a new prescription from the medical practitioner.