Due to the fact that blood is a liquid, it can sometimes be overlooked as an organ. Blood has multiple tasks: delivering oxygen and nutrients to tissue, taking waste products…

Cardiac Rhythm and Dysrhythmias Antidysrhythmic drugs are agents that are used to treat disorders of heart rate and rhythm termed dysrhythmias. The normal regular contractions of the heart are initiated…

Pain (nociception) is a subjective experience with both sensory and emotional components arising from actual or potential tissue damage. It is frequently a traumatic feature of many diseases and the…

Drugs are used to treat neurodegenerative disorders, anxiety, psychosis, depression, epilepsy and pain. Neurodegenerative Disorders The very limited capacity of neurons to divide and re-establish synaptic contacts means that neuronal…

The nervous system controls conscious and subconscious (autonomic) activities, and the higher order processes memory, emotion and intelligence. It is composed of the following systems: • The peripheral nervous system…

The use of biotechnology has led to the creation of novel classes of drugs that have transformed therapeutic approaches for various diseases that were otherwise difficult to obtain with traditional…

Drugs produce effects in the body mainly in the following ways: • By acting on receptors • By inhibiting carriers (molecules that transport one or more ions or molecules across…

Whilst the practice of pharmacology is to ultimately reach an end goal of understanding pharmacodynamics (what the drug does to the body), scientists and clinicians also need to understand what…

Pharmacology concerns the study of how drugs affect the function of host tissues or combat infectious organisms. In most cases, drugs bind selectively to target molecules within the body, usually…

A drug has to be demonstrated to be reasonably safe and effective before it can enter the clinic (see Chapter 10 ). An integrated risk assessment will be made on…