In the following two/three weeks, we are going to introduce basic pharmacological terminology, including the types of medications according to function (section 9.6 of BMT II handouts), pharmaceutical forms and agents, as well as the formulae most commonly used in medical prescriptions.

First, we are going to discuss the main parts of medical prescription (although it looks slightly differently in different countries), what information is included, what kind of instructions for the pharmacist usually occur, and what are the most common medicinal forms found in these - see sections 9.1 - 9.4 of BMT II_handouts.

The formulae used in medical prescriptions to instruct pharmacists are usually given in their abbreviated forms. You should, therefore, become familiar with the basic vocabulary pertaining to these and be able to provide these instructions in full forms. 

The most common formulae and their usual abbreviations are listed in section 9.5 of BMT II_handouts, but it is definitely NOT desirable to memorize the whole table by heart, you should rather gain a basic understanding of the structure of the prescription, what information is found where, and be able to figure out, based on the vocab you learn, what the abbreviations refer to.