Medical supplies

Medicinal product, medicinal product, medication, medicine - a substance or mixture of substances of synthetic or natural origin in the form of a medicinal product (tablets, capsules, solution, ointments, vaccines, etc.). used for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases.

Before being used in medical practice, medicinal products undergo clinical trials and obtain permission for use.

The action of drugs is carried out mainly by changing the physicochemical properties of the environment in which the cellular elements of the body are located; in this case, the action may have the character of a chemical combination of the drug with the elements of the body and, in some cases, with a direct action on the protoplasm of the cells, be accompanied by their complete destruction. The physiological effect of the drug is either arousal or inhibition of the vital activity of cellular elements; in this case, the dose of the medicinal substance plays an important role, since the same drug in different doses can cause different effects - excite in small doses and depress (up to paralysis) in large doses.

An essential point is the phase of action of drugs: some drugs can exert their effect at the moment of penetration into the body (the phase of entry according to Kravkov), others - the majority - during the period of maximum concentration in the body (phase of saturation), and still others - at the moment of a drop in concentration (phase of withdrawal ); at the same time, the ability of some drugs to cumulate is extremely important, which manifests itself in a sharp increase and sometimes perversion of their action upon repeated administration, which is explained by the accumulation of the drug in the body and the accumulation of the effect of its action.

The effect of the drug depends on the age, sex, health status and individual characteristics of the body of the person taking it. A number of drugs in a correspondingly reduced dose have a much stronger effect on children than on adults (often poisonous); women during menstruation, pregnancy, lactation react to medications differently than usual; on some people, the drug acts abnormally strongly, which is explained by the increased sensitivity of the body to certain substances.

The routes of drug administration into the body are very diverse. Most often, they use oral medication. In order to avoid rapid decomposition of the drug, irritation of the gastrointestinal canal or to achieve the greatest speed of action, the drug is administered using a syringe subcutaneously, intramuscularly or intravenously. Some medicines are given through the rectum or by inhalation.

External use of drugs is considered to be applied to the skin and mucous membranes of the eye, nose, ears, mouth, urogenital tract (to the entry point into the bladder and to the cervical canal of the uterus), to the rectal mucosa (to the location of the internal sphincter).

In the body, drugs are destroyed, changed and, entering chemical compounds with its salts and liquids, lose their toxic properties (and sometimes, on the contrary, acquire them) and in one form or another are excreted from the body through the intestines, kidneys, respiratory tract, sweat glands, etc.