What is Drug:
As a drug it is known substance that serves to prevent, cure or alleviate a disease, its symptoms or its consequences.
The word, as such, comes from Latin pharmăcum, which in turn takes it from the Greek φάρμακον (phármakon). It can mean ‘remedy’, ‘antidote’, ‘cure’ or even ‘drug’ or ‘poison’.
a drug It is an active ingredient, that is, a substance whose composition we know preciselywhich has the capacity to produce effects or alterations on a certain physiological property of the person who consumes it.
Drugs can be administered internally or externally in an animal organism. Its effects, both beneficial and harmful, can become fully known, since, generally, upon reaching the market, they have already been tested on a large number of people.
Likewise, drugs can be synthesized or obtained from living organisms. In the latter case, they must go through a series of chemical purification and modification processes previously.
The way in which drugs act in the body will vary depending on the nature of each one, but, in any case, it will always depend on the amount ingested or absorbed by each individual.
On the other hand, the name of the drugs is decided jointly between manufacturers and scientific and academic institutions. They are in charge of defining an official international name (or International non-proprietary name).
However, sometimes they may also be marketed under different names (proprietary or commercial), which may vary from country to country.
Examples of drugs are acetaminophen, acyclovir, amoxicillin, benazepril, ciprofloxacin, eferin, methylprednisone, piroxicam, ramipril, thiamine or zinc.
See also Pharmacology.
Agonist and antagonist drugs
In the area of pharmacology, they are called agonists all those drugs whose actions or stimuli are provoked by a response, which can be associated with either an increase (activation) or a decrease (inhibition) of cellular activity. It is an effect typical of receptive drugs.
The drugs antagonists, on the other hand, act as receptor blockers, which means that they decrease the responses of the neurotransmitters present in the body. Antagonism can decrease or nullify the effect of the agonist.
Drug, medication or drug
A drug is not the same as a medicine or a drug. A drug It is an active ingredient, a substance whose composition and effects we know.
He medicine, for its part, is the result of the combination of one or more drugs with other substances known as excipients, which are pharmacologically inactive, but which allow volume to be added to the pharmaceutical presentation. Furthermore, medicines, although they may also use the international non-proprietary name, are usually sold under a trade or brand name.
The drug, on the other hand, involves a mixture of compounds among which at least one has proven pharmacological activity. However, in drugs, the details of the composition of the mixture are unknown, so it is difficult to know its components or their concentration and, consequently, to predict their effects. Examples of drugs are marijuana or bazooka.
See also Medication.