THE MERCK MANUAL MEDICAL LIBRARY: The Merck Manual of Medical Information--Home Edition
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Subject

Introduction

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Drug dynamics (pharmacodynamics) involves what a drug does to the body.

Drug dynamics describes the therapeutic effects of drugs (such as relief of pain and reduction of blood pressure) and their side effects. But drug dynamics also describes where (the site) and how (the mechanism) a drug acts on the body. A drug's effects on the body may be influenced by many factors, such as a person's age (see Aging and Drugs), genetic makeup, and other medical conditions the person has other than the one being treated (see Factors Affecting Response to Drugs: Introduction).

Last full review/revision November 2007 by Angela Moroney, PharmD

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