Classification of Drugs

Drugs are chemicals that affect our metabolism and provide treatment from ailments . They are used for treatments and must be given to a patient after determining certain factors. The salts and constituents of a particular drug decide the purpose for which it can be used. Not all drugs can be used to cure a single ailment. Also, people who are allergic to certain drugs or some of their constituents, must be considered by the therapists while prescribing medicines. 

Definition of Drugs and Their Uses

Drugs are chemical substances that bring about a change in a person’s physiological behaviour. The drugs which produce remedial biological responses are called medicines. Medicines help in examining, preventing and curing various ailments. Therapists analyse the behaviour of the drug and its reaction to a patient’s body and prescribe the drugs to them accordingly. 

Drugs are used primarily for the treatment of people suffering with illnesses and other conditions, but they can also be used in the field of research and studies. Their distinctive salts relate to their purpose.

Classification of Drugs and its Importance

Drugs are classified based on various factors such as their pharmacological effects, effects on the body, targets, and their chemical structure. Drugs are considered medicine when used for therapeutic purposes and have a lower molecular mass than the macromolecules they interact with. They are categorised based on the physical and the psychological effects they produce. 

Classification of Drugs Based on their Action

Drug action is the response any drug has on any particular part of the body or the entire body. One of the major classifications based on drug action is the type of response it produces. Since there are many drugs on the market that are used for the treatment of a similar ailment, all of them have different responses in the body. Let us look at the example of a headache. 

There are different medicines that you can take to cure a headache. Ibuprofen and Acetaminophen are the two of the most commonly used drugs for curing headaches. Both of them work towards the same cause, but in their own ways. In other words, many drugs serve the same purpose, but have different actions.

Classification of Drugs Based on the Pharmacological Effect

The pharmacological effect of drugs is the effect that drugs have on cells within the body of an organism. These effects can be caused in a particular group of cells or the cells of the entire body, depending on the drug. It is completely dependent on the drug and what effect it will produce in the body. In this way, they are placed in separate categories according to their pharmacological effects. 

Let us now examine a few drugs to understand this better. Alpha-beta blockers are drugs given to patients with high blood pressure. Similarly, Metformin is a drug that is used in the treatment of Type-2 diabetes. These are examples of the classification of drugs based on their pharmacological effect.

Classification of Drugs Based on Molecular Targets of Drugs

All drugs act at the target macromolecules and can be classified according to them. Different drugs can have a different mechanism even though they are working towards the same cause. But they can be classified according to their molecular targets. One of the major uses of drug classification based on target molecules is that it helps in clinical trials.

Classification of Drugs Based on Molecular Structure

The similarity in the action and the response of the drugs is due to their similar chemical structures. A small or minute change in branching can be observed, but the entire skeletal structure remains the same. This means that drugs can have a common set of characteristics to work towards curing a particular ailment.

This is one of the most common methods of drug classification that can greatly help therapists and researchers to understand the functioning and the effect of a particular drug on the body. 

Conclusion

Drugs are vital for curing different diseases and in medical studies. Drugs can be administered orally or can be injected into a person’s body. Different drugs have different reactions in the body. Depending on their structure, effect, constituents and target molecules, they are placed into separate categories for therapists and research scholars to understand them more easily. Classification of drugs plays an important role in the studying of medicines and their putting in use.