Types of medicine

If you're someone who lives in an English-speaking country or works in a field where English is important, such as tourism, banking, sales, or retail, then knowing some basic terms related to medicine will be very helpful to you.

As much as I dislike talking about the topic of sickness and medicine, it's very important because we're human and we all get sick. Sooner or later, these words will be needed.

Here I have created a visual guide to some terms related to some basic drugs and also the different forms that medicine could come in.

 

There are many terms here for different kinds of medicine. It's also always fine to say, "medicine for cough, medicine for fever etc" but the terms above are just more specific for your knowledge and understanding.

I also want to mention the terms "over-the-counter" and "prescription." In many countries around the world, it's possible to buy antibiotics and almost all kinds of drugs without going to a doctor or getting consent from a healthcare professional. This is not the case in other countries such as in Spain or the U.S. There are certain drugs that can only be purchased if you have a "prescription" given from a doctor's office. You will take this prescription to a pharmacy, they will approve it and provide you with the medicine. Other drugs such as certain pain relievers or antacids can be purchased without a "prescription" which means you can go directly to a drugstore / chemist's / pharmacy and buy them without a doctor's consent. This is known as "over-the-counter" (because you can buy them at the counter).