Do you know the detailing about 'Drugs' ?
Drugs are chemicals that interact with the macromolecular targets to produce a biological response.
However, some drugs are also used as a stimulant arising a state of euphoria and can be habit forming leading to addiction.
Drugs are classified into different categories depending on certain criteria like their chemical structure, physical and psychological effects. Drugs affect the nervous system of individuals and create varied responses.
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Brief classification of drugs based on their physical and psychological effects is given below:
Analgesics like aspirin reduce pain.
Anti-inflammatory drugs reduce inflammation in the body.
Antipyretics reduce body temperature.
Depressents are drugs that supress the activity of brain and nerves. These drugs are administered to relieve anxiety and promote sleep.
Stimulants increase the activity of the brain and nervous system making an individual more energetic and ecstactic. They can also make an individual paranoid and induce anger.
Hallucinogens are drugs that act on the central nervous system. They alter the perception of space, time and reality and the individual may start imagining things and situations that are not real.
Opioids are used to treat pain and cough.
Inhalants exist in vapour state at room temperature and are consumed by inhaling
Antibiotics were earlier defined as chemicals produced from microorganisms used to kill or inhibit the growth of other microorganisms. Now since they can be artificially synthesised hence now they are defined as molecules that either kill or inhibit the growth of microorganisms.
Psychoactive drugs affect the functioning of the central nervous system and alter mood, perception and consciousness.
Cannabis is an illicit drug used worldwide as charas, bhang and ganja. There are several other ways of classifying drugs. It should be remembered that most of the drugs serve medicinal purpose only in small quantity and have side effects if consumed in larger quantities. Here we shall discuss two commonly used drugs aspirin and paracetamol.
Aspirin: It is a common drug used to reduce fever (antipyretic) and as an analgesic to relieve pain. Chemically it is acetyl salicylic acid prepared by the reaction of salicylic acid with acetic anhydride.
Paracetamol: It is one of the most common drug used to reduce fever and in the treatment of mild pain like headache, pain in joints, muscles and body pain.It is prepared by the nitration of phenol which gives both ortho and para-nitro phenol. The ortho isomer is removed by steam distillation and the para isomer is reduced to give p-aminophenol which on acetylation gives acetaminophen widely known as paracetamol. Although it causes lesser gastrointestinal side effects as compared to aspirin but overdose of paracetamol causes damage to liver.
When the biological response is therapeutic assisting in the diagnosis, treatment or prevention of a disease it is termed as a medicine.
