Similarity And Difference Between Pharmacy And Pharmacology

Pharmacy and Pharmacology

Pharmacy students back in school like going by the title description of pharm (name). Pharmacology students also copied this. This confusion is becoming so rampant that college students get confused on what is the difference between the two courses. Here is the difference.

Pharmacy And Pharmacology

Pharmacy is a health profession in which a pharmacist provide information regarding medication to patients and other health care professionals. They are medication experts concerned with drug design and development, distribution and safety use guarding the public on medication.

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There are about twenty schools offering pharmacy in Nigeria. It is a faculty of its own having about six departments under it. The departments include Pharmacy Administration and Clinical Pharmacy (P.C.A), Pharmaceutical Chemistry (P.C.H), Pharmaceutics and Industrial Pharmacy (P.C.T), Pharmaceutical Microbiology (P.M.B), Pharmacognosy and Traditional Medicine (P.C.G) and Pharmacology (P.C.T).

On the other hand, pharmacology is the study of changes, reactions, or responses to a chemical in a living organism. It is more on drug and other chemicals such as toxins interaction in living things. Pharmacology is more specific department whose interest is in action and uses of drugs, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics (what the drugs do to the body and what the body does to the drug). They are very good at design but not development (some schools have added PCH and PCG and as such we can say they are also into development) all at the biochemical and molecular level.

Pharmacology is a department that can be from the faculty of pharmacy or faculty of basic medical sciences depending on the school. There are about four schools offering pharmacology as a course in Nigeria. The number may increase in the nearest future. Those schools most likely have their pharmacology under the faculty of basic medical sciences.

Degree Awarded

Pharmacy is a B. Pharm or Pharm. D. degree under a period of 5 or 6 years respectively. However, pharmacology is an undergraduate degree that awards B.Sc. under the space of 4 years.

Educations

Pharmacy offer about 90 % of courses pharmacology students offers in school. They cover these course subjects under four years in most pharmacy schools from 300 level. However, a major difference I notice is that pharmacy students only study practical in pharmacology for just a year in two semesters.

Pharmacology students, on the other hand, covers every aspect of pharmacology including some basic medical courses such a biochemistry (which pharmacy also participate in).

According to one source, University of Lagos (U.N.I.L.A.G) pharmacology students do some course from PCH and PCG.

Career Paths

Pharmacist and pharmacologist rarely encounter one another professionally except in pharmaceutical industry or research institute. Pharmacy is a healthcare profession course that is a vocational training spreading career path. They can work in a variety of setting such a pharmaceutical industry, hospital etc.

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A pharmacologist is a research oriented course allowing holders to work in a research institute and pharmaceutical industry. Some research institute can be within a regulatory organisation.

Job And Duty

Pharmacy covers drug design, development, production, distribution, counselling etc. of drugs while pharmacology is part of drug design formulating drugs for different methods of delivery, its effects and best routes for each drug.

Conclusively, a pharmacist knows much of what a pharmacologist knows while a pharmacologist knows a fraction of what a pharmacist knows. Unofficially, a pharmacist is a pharmacologist but a pharmacologist is not a pharmacist.

It can be said that pharmacology is the major course that serves as a major link between the pharmacy and the other medical profession.

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