Pharmacology is the scientific study of the effects of drugs and chemicals on living organisms. It is a branch of medicine, biology, and pharmaceutical sciences concerned with drug or medication action. In the broadest sense, pharmacology is the study of how chemical agents, both natural and synthetic, affect biological systems. Pharmacology research is critical in the development of modern personalized medicine.
Pharmacology encompasses a variety of disciplines ranging from genetics to molecular biology to biochemistry to physiology. It is often described as a bridge science because it incorporates knowledge and skills from a number of basic science disciplines including physiology, biochemistry, and cell and molecular biology. Pharmacologists are able to translate such knowledge into the rational development of therapeutics.
Pharmacology can be studied in relation to wider contexts than the physiology of individuals. For example, pharmacoepidemiology concerns the variations of the effects of drugs in or between populations, and pharmacoenvironmentology or environmental pharmacology is the study of the environmental impact of pharmaceuticals.
There are many sub-specialties within the general discipline of pharmacology. Pharmacodynamics is the study of the effects of drugs on biological systems and specifically addresses the chemical properties and physiological and behavioral effects of drugs arising from their interaction with molecular targets such as receptor proteins or enzyme systems. In contrast, pharmacokinetics is the study of what biological systems do to the drug.
Pharmacology is not synonymous with pharmacy, which is a separate discipline in the health sciences. Pharmacy uses the knowledge derived from pharmacology to achieve optimal therapeutic outcomes through the appropriate preparation and dispensing of medicines.
