Talk:Route of administration

I think that where it says: "... enteral, such as sublingual ...", it should say: "... parenteral, such as sublingual ..."

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I have a few problems with the Route of Administration page as written. The page seems to give undue creedence to whether a drug has a local or systemic effect in determining its classification. In reality, Route of Administration is how the drug is introduced to the body. It is irrelavent for classification purposes what it does once it gets there.

Route of Administration is divided into two, not three, main categories. Enteral, which is through the gastrointestinal system, and parenteral, which is everything else. Parenteral is further subdivided into injections, inhalations and topical.

Enteral is through the gastrointestinal system. At one time, enteral was synonymous with "by mouth" because such drugs had to be swallowed. However, in modern times, other drug delivery mechanisms have made it possible to administer a drug orally without the need for the patient to swallow. Sublingual and buccal drugs are not enteral because they do not enter the GI system.

Parenteral is all other delivery mechanisms that do not involve the gastointestinal system. Traditionally, parenteral means "by injection", but again, because of advances in the science, parenteral now includes many other mechanisms of delivery including topical and inhalational.

The following routes of administration are classified as follows:

ENTERAL

Transabdominal Intragastric Feeding Tube - drugs injected or infused through a feeding tube directly into the stomach.

Antacid - under the currect wiki article, this would be classified as topical because it has a local effect.

Enemas and suppositories - how the drug gets into the GI system is not relavent. Contrast would also be enteral.

PARENTERAL

Injections - pretty much all injections or infusions that are not into the GI system are considered parenteral.

Inhalational - drugs that are inhaled. Asthma spray and anesthetic gas are both inhalational.

Topical - Non-invasive application where the drug does not enter the GI system. Includes sublingual, buccal, transdermal, itch creams, tooth drops, eye drops and nasal sprays. It also includes drugs applied vaginally, but not rectally.

Proposed Merge

Please follow this link to discuss the proposed merge with Drug delivery. Thanks. -- aBSuRDiST -^T J ^C- 23:51, 21 July 2007 (UTC) this is very nice. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.197.224.23 (talk) 16:16, 11 November 2012 (UTC)

I agree. Also perhaps merge with Dosage form. --Zybez (talk) 22:05, 12 March 2013 (UTC)

Intrathecal

Is injecting into the "spinal canal" the same as, as I've read occurring elsewhere, injecting into the "spinal fluid"? Nagelfar (talk) 04:36, 22 October 2008 (UTC)

Some articles speak separately also of if administered "spinally or supraspinally" so there must indeed be some differences that need to be elaborated upon I am assuming. Nagelfar (talk) 23:34, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

I clicked on Talk in order to bring this subject up specifically, Intrathecal should be included but I am wondering if it's the same as intracerebroventricular since both routes bypass the blood brain barrier but I am not so sure that intrathecal injections go in to the Ventricular system. I think this is a very common Route of administration and absolutely has a place in this article. I am going to add it with a link to the intrathecal article, I hope this is sufficient but I am still wondering about the similarities to intracerebroventricular and if the two are interchangeable. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.30.208.49 (talk) 16:26, 3 February 2013 (UTC)

"In pharmacology AND toxicology"?

The article, at the time of me writing this, starts with the words "In pharmacology and toxicology". However, on the Wiki page for Pharmacology, toxicology is said to be a subdiscipline of pharmacology. That makes the phrase at the beginning of this article misleading, since toxicology is a part of pharmacology, right? 87.155.89.236 (talk) 13:14, 14 April 2009 (UTC) My understanding is that Pharmacology is the study of drugs and medicines which includes discovery, development, effects, side effects and fate in the body. Pharmacology may be divided into pharmacokinetics (What does the body do to drugs), pharmacodynamics (What the drug does to the body and how it achieves its effects) and theraputics (The use of medicines and drugs in the treatment of disease). Toxicology is the study of poisons and their undesirable and harmful effects. Poisons may be drugs, medicines, environmental pollutants, animal venoms, poisonous plants, household and workplace chemicals. The principles of Pharmacology also apply to Toxicology. I'd say most Toxicologists would want to be considered as a separate discipline to Pharmacologists and not a sub-discipline, as the two are quite different. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.160.108.175 (talk) 05:21, 3 June 2009 (UTC)

Two alternative classification sections

I made another classification section, based strictly on location of application, not involving local or systemic effect, because most list entries refer to routes of administration that may have both local and systemic effects. Mikael Häggström (talk) 07:15, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

Yet, I haven't found any Google results from any Jake Rbuckley, who is mentioned as somebody who had used the topical/enteral/parenteral classification system. Who is this guy? Mikael Häggström (talk) 18:40, 26 April 2010 (UTC)

Intra-arterial injection

Intra-arterial is mentioned in the article, but not as an injection method. It seems that it would be an appropriate addition to the injection section. Wakablogger2 (talk) 06:58, 11 August 2010 (UTC)

Please ignore. The article has "intraarterial" already. Wakablogger2 (talk) 06:59, 11 August 2010 (UTC)

Each section should have advantages and disadvantages

Currently, just one section (one route) lists the advantages and disadvantages. Ideally, we should list the advantages and disadvantages of each and every route of administration, along with information on how they must be stored, other regulations/rules such as the dosage regimen (doses, time, frequency, duration, etc) and even maybe information on what type of patients and for what drugs or for what treatment the route is recommended and commonly used. --Zybez (talk) 22:09, 12 March 2013 (UTC)

define parenteral in the article?

Parenteral redirects here. It would probably be nice to have a note under 'injections' that lets people know that the word parenteral refers to injections. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.205.75.240 (talk) 18:45, 20 January 2014 (UTC)

Better definition of parenteral

Currently this article says that parenteral is "Any route that is not enteral (par- + enteral)" but this also includes topical. If I am not mistaken, topical and inhalation is not under parenteral. Please confirm. --Waqqashanafi (talk) 06:14, 30 January 2016 (UTC)

Anasthesia

Various route of drug administration advantage and disadvantages 27.63.17.244 (talk) 02:45, 15 April 2022 (UTC)

Non-parenteral

Non-parenteral - please include explanation of routes of administration subsumed and excluded by non-parenteral 71.175.29.34 (talk) 22:25, 26 August 2022 (UTC)