PHAR 300 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Pharmacodynamics, Aspirin, Cell Signaling

• School: McGill University
• Department: Pharmacology and Therapeutics
• Course: PHAR 300
• Professor: Edith Zorychta

Document Summary

Drugs are chemicals; therefore, we name drugs based on their chemical structures. However, there are many simpler ways to describe drugs rather than calling them by their chemical names (e. g. aspirin) Drugs typically have: 1 chemical name, 1 generic name, and multiple trade-mark names. Chemical names derive from the compound"s structure (e. g. ch3cooh) Generic names are the names of drugs used universally (in class) There"s a lot of thought and logic that goes in to structuring these names (i. e. : drugs that end with mab are monoclonal antibodies, and drugs that end in vir are antiviral) The goal is that you can identify the category of the drug by looking at its name: *be sure to catch only the names of the prototype drugs we discuss in class* Pharmacodynamics pharmaco (drug), dynamics (how it acts) Pharmacokinetics pharmaco (drug), kinetics (how the drug is handled in the body) Therapeutics how drugs are used to treat/prevent diseases (indications, contraindications)