Pharmacology Abbreviations
36 abbreviations · part of Medical Abbreviations
Pharmacology abbreviations describe how drugs move through and act on the body (PK, PD, AUC, t1/2), how their safety is tracked (ADR, ADE, BBW) and how they are named and classified (INN, USAN, ATC). They appear in prescribing information, clinical trial reports, drug interaction references and pharmacy and medical education. Many come from pharmacokinetics, where a few numbers such as half-life, peak concentration and volume of distribution determine how much of a drug is given and how often.
| Abbreviation | Stands for | Description |
|---|---|---|
| ADA | Anti-drug antibodies | Antibodies a patient's immune system makes against a biologic medicine, such as infliximab or adalimumab, which can speed drug clearance, reduce response and trigger… |
| ADE | Adverse drug event | Any injury resulting from the use of a medication, including both adverse drug reactions at normal doses and harm caused by medication errors such as wrong dose or… |
| ADME | Absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion | The four processes that make up pharmacokinetics, describing a drug's path from administration to elimination. |
| ADR | Adverse drug reaction | Harmful, unintended response to a medicine at doses normally used for prevention, diagnosis or treatment, following the World Health Organization's classic definition. |
| AE | Adverse event | Any harmful or unwanted medical occurrence in a patient or trial participant given a drug, whether or not it is caused by the drug. |
| ATC | Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical classification | WHO system that classifies drugs into a five-level code by the organ or system they act on, their therapeutic and pharmacological group and their chemical substance. |
| AUC | Area under the curve | Total drug exposure over time, measured as the area under a graph of blood concentration against time. |
| BAN | British Approved Name | Official nonproprietary drug name used in the United Kingdom. |
| BBW | Black box warning | FDA's strongest label warning, printed inside a black border at the top of a drug's prescribing information to highlight risks of serious or life-threatening harm. |
| BE | Bioequivalence | Absence of a significant difference in the rate and extent of absorption between two products containing the same drug, such as a generic and its brand reference. |
| Cmax | Maximum concentration | Highest concentration a drug reaches in the blood after a dose, usually reported in pharmacokinetic studies and drug labels. |
| Css | Steady-state concentration | Drug level reached when the amount entering the body with each dose equals the amount eliminated, so peaks and troughs repeat at the same values. |
| CYP | Cytochrome P450 | Family of liver and intestinal enzymes that metabolize most drugs. |
| DDD | Defined daily dose | Assumed average maintenance dose per day of a drug used for its main indication in adults, set by the WHO for statistical comparison of drug use across countries and… |
| DDI | Drug-drug interaction | Change in the effect or blood level of one drug caused by another, through mechanisms such as enzyme inhibition, enzyme induction, transporter effects or additive… |
| DLT | Dose-limiting toxicity | Side effect serious enough to prevent increasing the dose of a drug in a phase 1 trial, usually defined in the protocol as specific grade 3 or 4 toxicities during the… |
| ED50 | Median effective dose | Dose that produces the intended effect in 50 percent of a test population, or half the maximal effect in a graded response. |
| INN | International Nonproprietary Name | Official generic name for a drug substance assigned by the World Health Organization, used worldwide in labeling, research and prescribing. |
| LD50 | Median lethal dose | Dose of a substance that kills 50 percent of test animals under defined conditions, used historically to compare acute toxicity of drugs, chemicals and poisons. |
| MOA | Mechanism of action | Specific biochemical interaction through which a drug produces its effect, such as blocking a receptor, inhibiting an enzyme or opening an ion channel. |
| MTD | Maximum tolerated dose | Highest dose of a drug that can be given without unacceptable side effects, usually defined in early cancer trials as the dose at which only a small fraction of… |
| NTI | Narrow therapeutic index | Description of drugs whose effective and toxic doses are close together, so small changes in dose or blood level can cause treatment failure or serious toxicity. |
| OIC | Opioid-induced constipation | Constipation caused by opioids slowing gut motility and fluid secretion, one of the most common opioid side effects. |
| OIH | Opioid-induced hyperalgesia | Paradoxical increase in pain sensitivity caused by opioid exposure, so that pain becomes more widespread or severe despite rising doses. |
| P-gp | P-glycoprotein | Transporter protein that pumps drugs out of cells in the gut wall, kidneys, liver and blood-brain barrier, limiting absorption and brain entry. |
| PD | Pharmacodynamics | Study of what a drug does to the body: how it binds receptors or enzymes, the relationship between concentration and effect, and the duration and intensity of response. |
| PGx | Pharmacogenomics | Study and clinical use of genetic variations that affect how individuals respond to drugs, such as variants in CYP2C19, CYP2D6, TPMT or HLA genes. |
| PIM | Potentially inappropriate medication | Drug whose risks generally outweigh its benefits in older adults, or in a specific condition, when safer alternatives exist. |
| PK | Pharmacokinetics | Study of what the body does to a drug: how it is absorbed, distributed into tissues, metabolized and eliminated over time. |
| SAE | Serious adverse event | Adverse event that results in death, is life-threatening, requires or prolongs hospitalization, causes significant disability, causes a birth defect or is another… |
| STOPP | Screening Tool of Older Persons' Prescriptions | European set of explicit criteria for identifying potentially inappropriate prescribing in older adults, organized by body system. |
| t1/2 | Half-life | Time it takes for the concentration of a drug in the blood to fall by half. |
| TI | Therapeutic index | Ratio between the dose that causes toxicity and the dose that produces the desired effect, classically TD50 divided by ED50. |
| Tmax | Time to maximum concentration | Time after a dose at which a drug reaches its highest blood level. |
| USAN | United States Adopted Name | Official nonproprietary name for a drug in the United States, selected by the USAN Council and used in US labeling and the USP. |
| Vd | Volume of distribution | Theoretical volume that would be needed to contain the total amount of drug in the body at the concentration measured in plasma. |
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