Medication

Also referred to as medicine, the term medication is typically a drug or similar substance that is used in the cure and/or prevention of anxiety, discomfort or pain.  It can also mean the act of administering drugs or medicines.  The concept of drug treatment, or administering medicines therapeutically, is normally related to the use of medicines as a result or surgery.  Clinical pharmacology has become the coined/politically correct term for the science of drug administration to human beings.

Medications are normally classified by:

• the biological system that is affected by the ingestion of a medicine
• its chemical components and properties
• the way in which it is administered

The five basic types of medications are as follows:

1. analgesics – specifically known as painkillers
2. antibiotics – medications designed to inhibit and destroy germ growth
3. antipyretics – targets the reduction of fevers
4. antiseptics – eliminates the growth of germs in areas that have been burned, cut, or otherwise wounded
5. anti-malarial – the treatment of malaria

Also relative to the topic of medication are tow other classifications:

• polypharmacy – refers to the continued consumption of 5 or more medications either prescription, non-prescription, or both and can result in either adverse side effects or damage to internal organs
• Zoopharmacognosy – animal usage of both drugs and non-food substances