How does medication really work? To help answer this question is Kenneth Akpan, he’s a pharmacist per excellence with over 7 years of experience ranging from clinical practice, community pharmacy practice, drug supply chain management and digital healthcare.
Let’s Start by understanding what medicines:
Medicines are chemical substances that are used to either treat, prevent, diagnose or cure diseases. You can also say medicine are substances that help promote the general well-being of the body.
There are different types of medicine and different routes in the administration of medicine. We have medicine that is administered through the oral route (Oral Medications) that’s tablets, capsules and the like. We also have injections and medications applied to the skin.
This article describes different types of medications and how they function in the body both for adults and children.
Techniques involved in each route of medication administration are different, and some of the important points are summarized as follows:
- Intravenous Route: This is when medication is sent directly into your vein using a needle or tube. The term “intravenous” means “into the vein.”
- Intramuscular Route: An intramuscular injection is a technique used to deliver a medication deep into the muscles. This allows the medication to be absorbed quickly.
- Subcutaneous Route: Subcutaneous route of drug administration, also called hypodermic administration, involves injecting a drug into the loose connective tissue between the dermis of the skin and the muscle layer.
- Rectal Route: Rectal administration uses the rectum as a route of administration for medication and other fluids, which are absorbed by the rectum’s blood vessels, and flow into the body’s circulatory system, which distributes the drug to the body’s organs and bodily systems
- Vaginal Route: Some drugs may be administered vaginally to women as a solution, tablet, cream, gel, suppository, or ring. The drug is slowly absorbed through the vaginal wall.
- Inhaled Route: The inhalation route is frequently used to administer drugs for the management of respiratory diseases such as asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary
