Chances are, if you visit a hospital, emergency room, or family doctor’s office for an injury or illness, you’ll be prescribed a medication to either relieve your symptoms, clear an infection, or remedy some dysfunction.
There are thousands of ways to classify medications. It’s quite a chaotic system because of the sheer number of drugs and categories. But at Trusted ER, our emergency physicians always plainly explain what a medication does and why we’re using it. In this article, you’ll learn the basics of a few common categories of medication — ones that you may come into contact with if you visit an ER.
Part of the reason that drug classification is chaotic is that there’s more than one way to organize drugs. We classify drugs in the following ways:
The United States Pharmacopeia (USP) established a drug classification system where they categorize medication first by their use, then by categorization of mechanism and mode of action, and finally, by chemical makeup. There are other classification systems, but the USP system is most useful to consumers.
Below are several groups of drugs that you may be prescribed after a visit to the emergency room, or that you might be given during an ER visit. Keep in mind that these aren’t all of the categories designated by the USP (there are nearly 50), but these are common.
Analgesics: These are pain medications, including both opioids and non-opioids. These may act on substances in the body that cause pain, interrupt pain signals to your brain, relieve inflammation, or work by some other mechanism.
Anesthetics: These medications block the sensation of pain and other feelings, such as discomfort or anxiety. We usually use these so that we can perform surgery or other treatments. Anesthetics may be local to a pain or surgery site or general, of which the aim is usually partial or complete unconsciousness. You may be given anesthetics orally, as an injection, via inhalation, or as a topical salve.
Anti-inflammatory agents: This most often refers to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as Tylenol® and Ibuprofen. These drugs primarily reduce pain, lower inflammation, and reduce fevers. Another conventional anti-inflammatory medication is a COX-2 inhibitor, which reduces the activity of certain compounds that irritate your body.
Antibiotics: This is a large class of medications that intends to treat bacterial infections of all kinds, from urinary tract infections to upper respiratory infections to pink eye. There’s no single antibiotic that can cure all infections, and it’s sometimes a tricky game figuring out which antibiotic will work best (based on your condition, medical history, antibiotic resistance, and more).
Antivirals: Antiviral drugs, such as the common Tamiflu for influenza, work by interfering with the virus. It’s important to know that antivirals don’t kill the virus, but they do keep it from spreading within your body. They may also help manage symptoms while your body fights off the virus.
To learn more about medications and how we use them, visit our pharmacy FAQ page. Trusted ER is a 24-hour independent emergency room — call one of our convenient Texas locations for more information.
Trusted ER – Coppell
Phone : (469) 949-1011
Address: 720 N Denton Tap Rd.,
Suite 100, Coppell, TX 75019
Trusted ER – Texoma
Phone : (903) 623-1405
Address: 115 West Travis St.
Sherman, TX 75092
Trusted ER – Uptown (Dallas)
Phone : (469) 750-1028
Address: 3607 Oak Lawn Ave., Suite 100
Dallas, TX 75219
Trusted ER – Hillcrest (Dallas)
Phone : (469) 750-1026
Address: 6215 Hillcrest Ave.
Dallas, TX 75205
Trusted ER – Valley Ranch (Irving)
Phone : (469) 713-1655
Address: 8200 N. MacArthur Blvd., Suite 100,
Irving, TX 75063
Trusted Pediatric Urgent Care
Phone : (469) 649-7010
Address: 8200 N. MacArthur Blvd.,
Suite 110, Irving, TX 75063
Trusted COVID-19 Testing Center
Phone:(469) 649-7006
Address: 720 N Denton Tap Rd, Suite #150
Coppell, TX 75019
Trusted ER – Hurst
Phone : (817) 984-6017
Address: 824 Airport Fwy
Hurst, TX 76054
Trusted Medical Centers – Mansfield
Phone : (817) 225-4809
Address: 1710 Hwy 287 N
Mansfield, TX 76063
Trusted ER Colleyville and Trusted Pediatric ER
Phone : (817) 984-7344
Address: 5000 Hwy 121,
Colleyville TX 76034
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