Chapter 6 - Pharmacy and toxicology

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Rescue from Exclusion Zone (Hot Zone)

Hospital Corpsman Revised Edition

Medication administration

CHAPTER 6
PHARMACY AND TOXICOLOGY
As you advance in rate, you will become more and more involved in the administration of medicines. Although drugs and their dosages are prescribed by medical officers and other authorized prescribers, you, as the Hospital Corpsman, are involved in their administration. It is necessary for you to learn drug sources, composition, methods of preparation and administration, and physiologic and toxicologic action. This chapter covers pharmacology, toxicology, medication calculations, pharmaceutical preparations, and prescriptions.

PHARMACOLOGY

LEARNING OBJECTIVE: Recall the subsciences of pharmacology, drug standards, medication administration methods, and factors that affect dosage.

Pharmacology is the science that deals with the origin, nature, chemistry, effects, and uses of drugs. The subsciences of pharmacology and their specific areas of concentration are as follows:

PHARMACOGNOSY-the branch of pharmacology that deals with biological, biochemical, and economic features of natural drugs and their constituents.

PHARMACY-the branch of pharmacology that deals with the preparation, dispensing, and proper use of drugs.
POSOLOGY-the science of dosages.
PHARMACODYNAMICS-the study of drug action on living organisms.

PHARMACOTHERAPEUTICS-the study of the uses of drugs in the treatment of disease.
TOXICOLOGY-the study of poisons, their actions, their detection, and the treatment of the conditions produced by them.

The science of treating disease by any method that will relieve pain, cure disease, or prolong life is called therapeutics. Therapeutics does not deal solely with giving or taking medicine. This field also includes many other methods, such as radiological treatment, diathermy, and hydrotherapy.

DRUG STANDARDS
The texts dealing with pharmaceutical preparations include the United States Pharmacopeia and National Formulary (USP-NF), which provides standards for drugs of therapeutic usefulness and pharmaceutical necessity. Inclusion of drugs into this compendium is based on therapeutic effectiveness and popularity. The USP-NF provides tests for drug identity, quality, strength, and purity.

Drug Facts and Comparisons and the Physicians' Desk Reference (PDR) have multiple indexes of commercially available drugs. Both are used as advertising outlets for various drug manufacturers. A comprehensive description of each pharmaceutical preparation (including composition, action and use, administration and dosage, precautions and side effects, dosage forms available, and the common (generic) drug names) is provided in both publications. These two publications are used as References for in-depth information on pharmaceutical products by healthcare providers and pharmacy personnel.

Remington: The Science and Practice of Pharmacy is probably the most widely used text/reference in American pharmacies. It contains all areas relevant to the art/science of pharmacy. The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics (Goodman and Gilman) is a textbook of pharmacology, toxicology, and therapeutics. This work is known as the "blue bible" of pharmacology.