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Pharmacology is the study of drugs and their effects on living organisms. It encompasses how drugs are absorbed, distributed, metabolized, and excreted (pharmacokinetics), as well as how they produce their effects (pharmacodynamics).
Pharmacokinetics (PK): what the body does to the drug (ADME: absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion). Pharmacodynamics (PD): what the drug does to the body (mechanism of action, effects, dose-response relationships).
ADME stands for Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, and Excretion — the four processes that determine how a drug moves through the body. Together they determine the drug's concentration at the site of action and its duration of effect.
Drug absorption is the movement of a drug from its site of administration into the bloodstream. Factors affecting absorption: route of administration, drug solubility, pH, blood flow to absorption site, surface area, and drug formulation.
Bioavailability is the fraction of an administered drug that reaches the systemic circulation in active form. IV drugs have 100% bioavailability. Oral drugs have lower bioavailability due to incomplete absorption and first-pass metabolism.