Stream: implementers
Topic: Medicine vs Medication
Jose Costa Teixeira (Oct 03 2017 at 20:16):
In native English speakers-language, is there an agreed / preferred vocabulary? My understanding is smth like Medicine is the product as it exists in the wild (read:pre-market, regulatory, supply - anything not in the scope of a treatment), while medication is the treatment or the drug used in that treatment for a patient. I can't express it better but basically FDA/EMA talk about medicines, while patients have medicationRequests. before any potential impact analysis, i ask: Is this something commonly used? Or is it one of the subtleties of latin languages?
Richard Townley-O'Neill (Oct 04 2017 at 02:35):
Generally I think of medication as the action of giving medicine (drug). But medicine can mean drug or what doctors do. So some people use medication for drug, so as to save medicine for what doctors do.
I'm not a clinician.
Jose Costa Teixeira (Oct 04 2017 at 11:52):
the European regulator is called "Medicines" agency and I wondered if this is getting a common distinction
Melva Peters (Oct 05 2017 at 15:57):
As a pharmacist, I use "Medication" and not "medicine". Medication can refer to both a branded product or a generic product and can refer to it in generic terms or as part of a specific treatment for a patient. In my experience in Canada, I don't hear medicine used in clinical terms - more from lay people when they take in general terms about "taking their medicine".
Jose Costa Teixeira (Oct 05 2017 at 19:14):
thanks @Melva Peters . That was my impression until I caught up with some discussions with the EMA and how this vocabulary clarification is becoming present in discussions
Last updated: Apr 12 2022 at 19:14 UTC
