The scientific study of drug actions and interactions within a living organism is known as pharmacology. When external drugs, whether pharmaceutical or not, enter a person’s or animal’s body, they become the subject of a pharmacologist’s research. The study of drugs that alter a person’s or organism’s functions is referred to as pharmacology. These drugs may or may not be medicinal. The study dates back to the 1840s as an official science, and it is not to be confused with pharmacy, which combines health and chemical sciences.
A pharmacologist’s job is to research the properties of a specific drug. They must figure out what the drug is made of, how it was made, and how it interacts with living organisms. The pharmacology student tries to figure out how it will react with the human body, other substances, and what effects these reactions will have. They must determine the drug’s toxicology as well as its potential therapeutic and medical applications, i.e., how it will affect the body’s biological functioning.
Clinical pharmacology, or the study of medicines; toxicology, or the study of drugs’ harmful effects; posology, or the study of what drugs can and should be taken in what doses; and neuropharmacology, or the study of effects on the nervous system, are all branches of pharmacology. These, among many other fields, assist the US Food and Drug Administration in providing information. If a drug is fit for use, it is stamped with guidelines and approval.
The study of pharmacology is thought to have begun with Avicenna, a Persian physician and philosopher who lived in the 11th century. The first mention of pharmacological practices appears in his Canon of Medicine, which was followed descriptions in John of St. Amand’s Commentary on the Antedotary of Nicholas in the early 1000s. With the development and proliferation of medicinal and recreational drugs in the nineteenth century, pharmacology advanced significantly when Rudolf Buccheim established the first educational department at the University of Dorpat in modern-day Estonia in 1847. Morphine and quinine were among the most researched pharmaceuticals at the time.
Pharmacology programs are available at universities and colleges all over the world in the twenty-first century. These programs, which prepare students for careers in laboratories, are among the most difficult to get into at many universities.