Clinical pharmacology: A definition

Abstract

This may seem like a late date for such a statement, but clinical pharmacology, the latest portfolio in medicine, suffers from the lack of an established and recognized definition; and what is even more distressing to clinical pharmacologists is that, even to those who use the term with some assurance, it often seems to mean different things. The reason for the confusion is not newness alone; the term itself is basically unclear and to a degree even inaccurate. It seems at once to imply such diverse aspects of drugs and their nature and application as applied pharmacology, clinical trials, therapeutics, drug screening, and pharmacology in the clinic (as against the animal laboratory) as well as human pharmacology and, of course, all the methodology involved. As a result in different hands it is used differently. Yet, despite the need to consolidate the subject, there are reasons for perpetuating a title which so early in its history already seems to be a misnomer. It has gained wide acceptance; to shift to a different and more precise but unrecognized term might result in a large step backward at a critical juncture when the need for progress in the discipline is urgent and at a time when the discipline has received its initial invitations to participate on an equal basis in modern medical society.