Social Pharmacology: A Further Step in Public Health

ABSTRACT

Social Pharmacology is a field of health science which generates knowledge about marketed drugs in actual use; it focuses on evaluation of the social consequences of an individual’s exposure to any marketed drug and factors related to its utilization.. The goal of this discipline is to gain knowledge still needed after a drug is marketed. The dossier of a new medicine following regulatory approval contains only the beginning of information needed to be gathered. The postmarketing period represents the most extensive opportunity to study medications in their “social life cycle” The postapproval environment is complex: strict drug development process controls are no longer in place and operational and management actions by industrial sponsors, health delivery agencies and regulators are unpredictable. We review the impact of social pharmacology on public health in its broadest scope. Social pharmacology is proposed as a strategic means to obtain essential data about marketed drugs by engaging the expertise of heterogeneous groups of health-related disciplines., By assessing the wide scope of potential interactions between vectors linked to the actual use of marketed drugs, population-based conclusions may be reached about risk-benefit factors, need for alert responses, proposed actions for decision-making, importance of negative drug effects, and promotion of proper and efficient use of drugs.

Keywords:

Clinical pharmacology, clinical research, observational studies, outcome research, Phase IV, public health, social pharmacology, social research.