Drugs Used in Our Daily Life

What is drug? Drug is simply that the chemical taken that will affect the ways of the body works. Drugs (a.k.a. modern medicines) may come in many forms such as liquids, powders, capsules and tablets. Undeniably, drugs are proliferated used in medical fields in order to relieve pain of the patients and basically they play a vital role. Make use of drugs can definitely bring benefits to the people, while on the other hand, for the people who tend to involve themselves in drug abuse that is illegal in society will  lead to an in-harmonic scenario to be happened. Generally, drugs can be classified into analgesics (a.k.a. painkillers), antibiotics and psychotherapeutic medicines. 

(A) Analgesics or Painkillers

• Used to relieve pain without causing or affecting consciousness
• Examples: Aspirin, Paracetamol, Codeine

Acetyl salicylic acid

The IUPAC name of aspirin is acetyl salicylic acid.
Aspirin is acidic in nature. Hence, it cannot be taken without taking any meal. Overdoses of aspirin will bring side effects:-
(i) It causes internal bleeding and ulceration. To reduce irritation of the wall of stomach, aspirin is encouraged to be swallowed with plenty of warm water and is encouraged to take after meal.
(ii) It causes brain and liver to damage if aspirin is given to the children with flu or chicken pox. Thus, aspirin should never be given to children.



The chemical name for paracetamol is N-acetyl-p-aminophenol.
 It is known as 'fever-reducer'. The most common brand's company that manufacture paracetamol is Panadol.

N-acetyl-p-aminophenol

(i) Unlike aspirin, paracetamol can be given to the children as it does not irritate the stomach or cause internal bleeding.
(ii) Overdoses of paracetamol can cause skin rashes and acute inflammation of the pancreas.



The systemic name for codeine is (5α,6α)-3-Methoxy-17-methyl-7,8-didehydro-4,5-epoxymorphinan-6-ol.

(5α,6α)-3-Methoxy-17-methyl-7,8-
didehydro-4,5-epoxymorphinan-6-ol

Codeine is more powerful compared to paracetamol and aspirin. Codeine is used as analgesic used in headache tablets and in cough medicines. Most of the codeine is made up of morphine. Overdoses of it will cause:-
(i) Drowsiness
(ii) Addiction
(iii) Depression

(B) Antibiotics 

• Antibiotics are usually obtained from microorganisms such as bacteria or fungi
• Used to kill or slow down the growth of bacteria
• Used to treat diseases caused by bacteria, but not the diseases caused by viruses such as colds and flu
• Examples: Penicillin, Streptomycin

Different kinds of antibiotics can fight against different kinds of bacteria.

(2S,5R,6R)-3,3-Dimethyl-7-oxo-
6-[(phenylacetyl)amino]-4-thia-1-
azabicyclo[3.2.0]heptane-2-carboxylic acid

1,1'-[(1R,2R,3S,4R,5R,6S)-4-
({5-Deoxy-2-O-[2-deoxy-2-(methylamino)-
α-L-glucopyranosyl]-3-C-formyl-α-L-
lyxofuranosyl}oxy)-
2,5,6-trihydroxy-1,3-
cyclohexanediyl]diguanidine

Penicillin is extracted from Penicilium notatum.
It is used to treat bacterial diseases such as pneumia, gonorrhoea and syphillis.

Streptomycin is produced by soil bacteria.
It is used to treat tuberculosis and whooping cough.






Patients should take the full course of the antibiotic that doctor prescribe to him/her even he/she feels better. This is to make sure that all the bacteria in the human's body are all killed completely. Otherwise, he/she will fall ill again and the bacteria will tend to resistance to the antibiotic given. In this case, antibiotic will no longer effective to treat the particular  disease. A different and stronger antibiotic is needed to be prescribed from the doctor to cure the disease.
Overdoses of antibiotic will cause headache, allergic reaction and diarrhea.

(C) Psychotherapeutic medicines

• Group of drugs to treat mental or emotional illness. But these medicines do not cure mental illness. 
• Psychotherapeutic medicines are divided into stimulants, antidepressants and antipsychotic.

1. Stimulants

• Stimulate the activity of the brain and central nervous system
• Make a person to be more alert, energetic, less tired and more cheerful
• Examples: Caffeine, Amphetamines 

     

1,3,7-trimethylpurine-2,6-dione

Caffeine is a weak stimulant and usually is found in Cola drinks and coffee.

1-phenylpropan-2-amine

Amphetamine is a strong stimulant compared to caffeine. It increases a person's alertness and physical ability. Overdose of it will cause addiction, heart attack, anxiety, sleeplessness, aggressive behaviour and decrease appetite.

2. Depressants

• Make a person to feel calm and sleepy to reduce tension and anxiety
• Examples, Tranquillizers, Barbiturates (sleeping pills)

- Tranquillizers are used to reduce tension and anxiety of a person without making him sleepy. Overdoses of tranquillizers can cause drowsiness and poor coordination, respiratory difficulties, sleeplessness, coma and even death.

- Barbiturates are also known as sleeping pills are used to help to reduce tension and anxiety of a person but making him to be sleepy. Barbiturates can cause addiction to the people who always face the problem of insomnia. Sometime tragedy would happen if the people take overdose of barbiturate.

3. Antipsychotic

• Psychosis is one of the serious mental illnesses which people lose touch with reality.
• People may hear voices things that are not really there or have belief that are not based on reality.
• Used to reduce the symptoms of the psychosis so that the people live a more normal life but cannot treat psychosis.
• Examples: Chlorpromazine, Haloperidol, Clozapine 

Besides the drugs that have been stated above, there are still many kinds of drugs that can be found in our daily life. For example, Heroin, Ketamine, Opium and etc.

Warmth reminders here to everyone:

1. Seek professional advice from doctors or pharmacists before taking any drugs.

2. Do not take a large dose of any drugs.

3. Keep the medicines away from the children.

4. Store the medicines in the cool and dry place.

5. Check out the expiry date before buying any medicines.

References:

• http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/whoami/findoutmore/yourbrain/howdodrugsaffectyourbrain/whatisadrug.aspx - What is drug (Accessed on 23rd July 2014)
• Delgoda, K., L., Clarke, S.,F.,J., Collignon, U., Karalliedde, J., 2010, Adverse Drug Interactions: A Handbook for Prescribers, CRC Press, page 251-258
• Christine, Z., W., 2014, Antibiotics, ABDO Publishers, page 38-39
• http://drugs.webmd.boots.com/drugs/drug-356-paracetamol.aspx?drugid=356&drugname=paracetamol&istictac=false - Uses, dosages and side effects of paracetamol  (Accessed on 23rd July 2014)
• http://www.chemspider.com/Chemical-Structure.5693.html - IUPAC name for organic chemicals (Accessed on 23rd July 2014)