Pharmacology

Pharmacology is the study of how medicine and other things have an effect on living organisms and change how they function. Pharmacology could also be defined as the study of how medicine actually works.

The first pharmacology department in the world was set up in the University of Tartu by Rudolf Buchheim in 1847. ^[1]

Pharmacology is not exactly the same as pharmacy, and a pharmacologist is not exactly the same as a pharmacist. A pharmacologist is a scientist who studies how medicine actually works, and usually works in a science lab. A pharmacist is a health care provider who usually works at a pharmacy. However, there is quite a bit of overlap between these two fields. A pharmacist could be considered a type of pharmacologist. Pharmacists do take many classes in pharmacology.

If something can be used as a medicine, it is called a pharmaceutical. Pharmacology includes how drugs are made, how they interact with living organisms, what harmful effects they could have, how they can be used as medicines, and if they can be used to prevent illness. A person who works in the study of pharmacology is called a pharmacologist. Pharmacologists work in a team with biochemists, geneticists, microbiologists, toxicologists and pharmacists to run clinical tests on how drugs work.

1. ↑ Rang HP (January 2006). "The receptor concept: pharmacology's big idea". British Journal of Pharmacology. 147 Suppl 1 (S1): S9-16. doi:10.1038/sj.bjp.0706457. PMC 1760743. PMID 16402126.