Pharmacutical items simply known as medication, also referred to as medicine, is usually a drug or any other substance used to prevent or cure disease or to relieve pain, anxiety or any form of perceived discomfort, such as hunger. Medication is often used to mean the act of administering medicines or drugs. Other synonyms include pharmacotherapy, pharmacotherapeutics and drug treatment. Drug treatment, that is the administration of drugs with therapeutic intention, usually characterizes and distinguishes the practice of medicine from the art of surgery. The science of administering drugs to humans in the clinical setting is termed clinical pharmacology.