Pharmacography

Pharmacography is a term used to describe the descriptive study and documentation of medicinal substances and their use in medical practice and society. In its broadest sense, pharmacography encompasses the collection, organization, and presentation of information about drugs, including chemical composition, sources (synthetic, semi-synthetic, or natural), pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, approved indications, dosing guidelines, routes of administration, interactions, adverse effects, safety profiles, and regulatory status. The field also covers nomenclature, classification systems, and the creation of drug monographs, formularies, pharmacopoeias, and other reference resources that support evidence-based prescribing and patient information.

In modern practice, pharmacography is not widely used as a formal scientific discipline; rather, its functions are distributed across pharmacology, pharmacoepidemiology, pharmacovigilance, medicinal chemistry, and medical information science. When the term appears, it often refers to the bibliographic and informational aspects of drug knowledge—curation of drug databases, indexing of pharmacologic literature, and the graphical or textual presentation of drug-related information for clinicians, researchers, and the public. As an interdisciplinary concept, pharmacography intersects with drug regulation, safety monitoring, and pharmacoeconomics, but reliable usage varies by context and region.