∞ generated and posted on 2023.05.16 ∞
Movement of drugs into the blood.
| Absorption is the movement, in pharmacology, of a drug into the blood. It is considered to be an aspect of a body's impact on a drug and therefore part of a drug's pharmacokinetics. |
Generally absorption is the first step of drug movement into the body and typically is followed by what is known as distribution to other body tissues. Absorption is studied as a subset of the aspect of pharmacology that is known as pharmacokinetics.
Note that in non-pharmacological terms, absorption is simply movement of substances into the blood, such as movement of nutrients from the small intestine into systemic circulation.
Absorption may be accomplished via numerous dosing strategies, the most common of which is known as per os, which is oral dosing followed by intestinal absorption. The most direct though much less convenient route of absorption is intravenous. These two routes can be contrasted as enteral versus parenteral, respectively.