Many respiratory drugs are given by inhalation, although enteral, parenteral, transdermal, or topical routes of administration may be used for some agents. Giving medications by the inhaled route has several advantages over systemic administration: a smaller dose can be used, adverse effects are often reduced, the drug is delivered quickly to lung tissue or the […]

Overview Medications can play a role in treating mental disorders and conditions and are often used in combination with other treatment approaches such as psychotherapies and brain stimulation therapies. Medications can affect people in different ways, and it may take several tries to find the medication that is most effective with the fewest side effects. It’s important for […]

Your blood is living tissue made up of liquid and solids. The liquid part, called plasma, is made of water, salts and protein. Over half of your blood is plasma. The solid part of your blood contains red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. Blood disorders affect one or more parts of the blood and prevent […]

Antiarrhythmic Drugs Antiarrhythmic drugs are medications that that change the electrical properties of cardiac tissue, and by doing so, change the way the heart’s electrical signal spreads across the heart. Since the tachycardias (arrhythmias that cause a rapid heart rate) are usually related to abnormalities in the electrical signal, drugs that alter the heart’s electrical signal can often improve […]

Analgesics are medications used in the management and treatment of pain. They include several classes of medications (acetaminophen, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, antidepressants, antiepileptics, local anesthetics, and opioids). Indications According to the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), pain is defined as an unpleasant experience (sensory and/or emotional) related to a potential or confirmed […]

The basis of autonomic pharmacology reflects the physiology of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS) to regulate involuntary reactions to stresses on multiorgan systems within the body. When a pathologic process is present that affects the homeostasis achieved between the SNS and PSNS in this process, either of these branches […]

In order to be regulated and understood, the hundreds of thousands of different drugs must be classified. Drugs can be classified in many ways. The following is a list of drug classifications from the FDA Analgesics: Drugs that relieve pain. There are two main types: non-narcotic analgesics for mild pain, and narcotic analgesics for severe […]