PHARMACOLOGY
REVISION NOTES
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Comprehensive Study Guide for Medical Students
📘 12 Chapters 🧠 Mechanisms 💊 Drug Classes
Complete coverage of all major drug Detailed MOA tables for rapid Systematic classification with clinical
classes and mechanisms understanding applications
⚠️ ADRs 🆘 Antidotes 📊 Tables
High-yield adverse effects for exam Emergency drug interactions and Quick-reference comparison tables for
preparation antidotes guide rapid revision
2026 EDITION
Designed for Active Recall & Rapid Revision
,TABLE OF CONTENTS
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1. General Pharmacology — Pharmacokinetics, Pharmacodynamics, Drug Interactions
2. Autonomic Nervous System — Cholinergic, Adrenergic, Neuromuscular Blockers
3. Cardiovascular Pharmacology — Antihypertensives, Diuretics, Antiarrhythmics, Anticoagulants
4. CNS Pharmacology — Anesthetics, Antiepileptics, Antipsychotics, Antidepressants
5. Antimicrobial Drugs — Cell Wall, Protein Synthesis, DNA/RNA Inhibitors
6. Anti-TB & Anti-Leprosy Drugs — First-line Anti-TB, MDT Regimens
7. Anticancer Drugs — Alkylating Agents, Antimetabolites, Targeted Therapy
8. Endocrine Pharmacology — Antidiabetics, Thyroid Drugs, Bone Modulators
9. NSAIDs, Autacoids & Respiratory — Anti-inflammatory, Antihistamines, Bronchodilators
10. Gastrointestinal Pharmacology — PPIs, Anti-emetics, Laxatives
11. Emergency Drugs & Antidotes — Critical Antidotes, Emergency Drug of Choice
12. High-Yield Rapid Revision Tables — ADRs, Drug of Choice, CYP Interactions
, CHAPTER 1
GENERAL PHARMACOLOGY
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🔬 Pharmacokinetics (ADME)
Parameter Definition Key Formula
Bioavailability (F) Fraction of drug reaching systemic F = (AUC oral / AUC IV) × 100
circulation
Volume of Distribution (Vd) Apparent space drug distributes into Vd = Dose / Plasma Concentration
Clearance (Cl) Volume of blood cleared of drug per Cl = Rate of elimination / Plasma
unit time concentration
Half-life (t½) Time for plasma concentration to t½ = 0.693 × Vd / Cl
reduce by 50%
Loading Dose Initial dose to reach target LD = Vd × Target Concentration / F
concentration quickly
Maintenance Dose Dose to maintain steady-state MD = Cl × Target Concentration × τ / F
concentration
📊 Kinetics Types
Type Characteristics Examples
First-Order Constant fraction eliminated per unit Most drugs
time; t½ is constant
Zero-Order Constant amount eliminated per unit Phenytoin, Ethanol, Aspirin (high
time; t½ increases with dose dose)
⚖️ Pharmacodynamics
Concept Definition
Agonist Binds to receptor and produces response
Antagonist Binds to receptor but produces no response
Partial Agonist Binds and produces submaximal response
Inverse Agonist Binds and produces opposite effect
Therapeutic Index (TI) TI = TD₅₀ / ED₅₀ (higher = safer)
🔄 Drug Interactions
Enzyme Inducers: Rifampicin, Phenytoin, Carbamazepine, Phenobarbital, Griseofulvin
Enzyme Inhibitors: Cimetidine, Erythromycin, Ketoconazole, Ritonavir, Ciprofloxacin, Isoniazid
REVISION NOTES
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Comprehensive Study Guide for Medical Students
📘 12 Chapters 🧠 Mechanisms 💊 Drug Classes
Complete coverage of all major drug Detailed MOA tables for rapid Systematic classification with clinical
classes and mechanisms understanding applications
⚠️ ADRs 🆘 Antidotes 📊 Tables
High-yield adverse effects for exam Emergency drug interactions and Quick-reference comparison tables for
preparation antidotes guide rapid revision
2026 EDITION
Designed for Active Recall & Rapid Revision
,TABLE OF CONTENTS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━
1. General Pharmacology — Pharmacokinetics, Pharmacodynamics, Drug Interactions
2. Autonomic Nervous System — Cholinergic, Adrenergic, Neuromuscular Blockers
3. Cardiovascular Pharmacology — Antihypertensives, Diuretics, Antiarrhythmics, Anticoagulants
4. CNS Pharmacology — Anesthetics, Antiepileptics, Antipsychotics, Antidepressants
5. Antimicrobial Drugs — Cell Wall, Protein Synthesis, DNA/RNA Inhibitors
6. Anti-TB & Anti-Leprosy Drugs — First-line Anti-TB, MDT Regimens
7. Anticancer Drugs — Alkylating Agents, Antimetabolites, Targeted Therapy
8. Endocrine Pharmacology — Antidiabetics, Thyroid Drugs, Bone Modulators
9. NSAIDs, Autacoids & Respiratory — Anti-inflammatory, Antihistamines, Bronchodilators
10. Gastrointestinal Pharmacology — PPIs, Anti-emetics, Laxatives
11. Emergency Drugs & Antidotes — Critical Antidotes, Emergency Drug of Choice
12. High-Yield Rapid Revision Tables — ADRs, Drug of Choice, CYP Interactions
, CHAPTER 1
GENERAL PHARMACOLOGY
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━
🔬 Pharmacokinetics (ADME)
Parameter Definition Key Formula
Bioavailability (F) Fraction of drug reaching systemic F = (AUC oral / AUC IV) × 100
circulation
Volume of Distribution (Vd) Apparent space drug distributes into Vd = Dose / Plasma Concentration
Clearance (Cl) Volume of blood cleared of drug per Cl = Rate of elimination / Plasma
unit time concentration
Half-life (t½) Time for plasma concentration to t½ = 0.693 × Vd / Cl
reduce by 50%
Loading Dose Initial dose to reach target LD = Vd × Target Concentration / F
concentration quickly
Maintenance Dose Dose to maintain steady-state MD = Cl × Target Concentration × τ / F
concentration
📊 Kinetics Types
Type Characteristics Examples
First-Order Constant fraction eliminated per unit Most drugs
time; t½ is constant
Zero-Order Constant amount eliminated per unit Phenytoin, Ethanol, Aspirin (high
time; t½ increases with dose dose)
⚖️ Pharmacodynamics
Concept Definition
Agonist Binds to receptor and produces response
Antagonist Binds to receptor but produces no response
Partial Agonist Binds and produces submaximal response
Inverse Agonist Binds and produces opposite effect
Therapeutic Index (TI) TI = TD₅₀ / ED₅₀ (higher = safer)
🔄 Drug Interactions
Enzyme Inducers: Rifampicin, Phenytoin, Carbamazepine, Phenobarbital, Griseofulvin
Enzyme Inhibitors: Cimetidine, Erythromycin, Ketoconazole, Ritonavir, Ciprofloxacin, Isoniazid
