Module 1 Medicine and Drugs

Study Notes

Medicine refers to the science and practice of diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases, as well as a substance used to treat diseases and relieve pain.
Medicine can have a positive effect on health, but the term "drugs" is often associated with negative connotations.

Physical Properties: can be observed and measured without changing the chemical composition of the substance.
Chemical Properties: describes how the medicine behaves when it undergoes a chemical reaction or interacts with other substances.
PhysicoChemical Properties:
- Solubility: the ability of a substance to dissolve in a liquid.
- Permeability: how easily a substance can pass through a barrier, such as a cell membrane.
- Physical State: the form that a substance takes (solid, liquid, or gas).
- Polarity: a measure of how strongly a substance is attracted to other molecules.
- Surface Activity: how well a substance can reduce the surface tension of a liquid.
- Isomerism: when two or more compounds have the same chemical formula but a different arrangement of atoms.
- Intermolecular Forces: the forces that hold molecules together.
- pH: most drugs are weak acids and weak bases, and an acidic drug dissolves in a basic medium, and vice versa.

Chemical Name: identifies the chemical elements and compounds contained in the drug.
Generic/Non-proprietary Name: widely recognized name of the drug, often follows similar patterns for drugs of the same class or process.
Brand/Trade/Proprietary Name: drug company's copyrighted and trademarked name, which limits the use of the name.

Therapeutic Classification: explains the clinical purpose of the drug/physiological change it causes, often uses the prefix "anti".
Pharmacological Classification: the specific thing that the drug does on a molecular level to induce the desired physiological effect.

Prescription drugs: powerful treatments that require a doctor's or dentist's prescription, purchased from a pharmacy, and generally more potent than OTC medications.
OTC drugs: medications that can be bought without a prescription, can be displayed and bought from store shelves, and generally considered safe for self-use.