Pharmacology is the study of how drugs act, from the submicroscopic molecular level to statistical investigations of the effects of drugs on populations of people - pharmacoepidemiology.

Toxicology is largely a subset of Pharmacology and is glibly defined as Overdose Pharmacology.

A Pharmacologist is a scientist who discovers how drugs cause their actions. Pharmacologists quantitate mechanism by analyzing the dose-response for therapeutic and toxic effects. A Toxicologist is attentive to adverse reactions to drugs.

A Pharmacologist is different from a Pharmacist - the latter is a healthcare professional who dispenses them to patients based on the research performed by pharmacologists. It is the job of the pharmacologist to discover drugs and determine their benefits, risks, safety, side effects, and adverse reactions.

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Neuropharmacology encompasses those drugs which act on the centrail nervous system (brain, spinal cord) and peripheral nerves. This includes drugs with therapeutic effects or adverse reactions in anxiety, depression, cognition, bipolar disorder, etc: diseases or effects in the areas of neurology and psychiatry. Neuropharmacology Definition

Neurotoxicology likewise concerns toxic effects of drugs (and other substances) on the nervous system. There is a qualitative aspect (what type of neurotoxic effects are produced?) and a quantitative aspect (what exposure (dose x duration) results in what level of neurotoxic effect?).

John Lehmann PhD is the principal of Pharmikos. With a BSc from Caltech and PhD from University of British Columbia, he pursued further postdoctoral training in Paris at Synthelabo and in Baltimore at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He joined the drug discovery effort at Ciba Geigy (now Novartis) ...