Basic Pharmacology

Question 1

What is pharmacokinetics?

Answer 1

Deals with the absorption, distribution, biotransformation, and elimination of a drug (the movement of the drug in the body)
- increases or decreases the efficacy of the same compound (ex. route of administration is very important to determine the efficacy of a drug)

Question 2

What is pharmacodynamics?

Answer 2

The biochemical effects of drugs and their mechanism of action

Question 3

What does a half-life describe?

Answer 3

The time for the plasma concentration level to react half its peak (most addictive substances are ones that have a very short lived half life)

Question 4

What are some examples of naturally occurring drugs?

Answer 4

cocaine, opium

Question 5

What are some examples of semi-synthetic drugs?

Answer 5

Heroin

Question 6

What are some examples of synthetic drugs?

Answer 6

Amphetamine

Question 7

How can we classify drugs?

Answer 7

1. based on their behavioural effects
   - depressants
   - stimulants
   - hypnotics
2. based on their legal classification
   - schedule I (most addictive) to schedule V (least)

Question 8

What are some routes of administration?

Answer 8

• oral
• parenteral
• pulmonary
• topical
• subcutaneous

Question 9

What does a drug need in order to have an effect?

Answer 9

It needs to be able to act on a receptor (no receptor for that substance? no effect)

Question 10

What does the maximum effect describe?

Answer 10

The point at which all receptors are occupied by a drug

Question 11

What is a side effect?

Answer 11

Any unintentional effect of a drug

Question 12

How is it possible that one drug can have many effects?

Answer 12

Either
1. the drug acts on multiple receptors
or
2. the receptors are found in multiple locations

Question 13

What does an S-curve describe?

Answer 13

The effect of a drug (something specific like attention) based on the dosage

Question 14

What does potency describe?

Answer 14

The dose needed to have an effect (more potent = less of a drug to have an effect)
- represents differences along the x-axis of a dose-response curve

Question 15

What is efficacy?

Answer 15

The maximum effect at the ceiling (describes the differences in the y-axis on a dose-response curve)

Question 16

What is ED50?

Answer 16

The dose that produces an effect in 50% of the population

Question 17

What is LD50 (or TD50)?

Answer 17

The dose that kills 50% of the population

Question 18

What is the therapeutic index?

Answer 18

The difference between the effective dose and the toxic dose (TI = LD50/ED50)

Question 19

What is an agonist?

Answer 19

A drug that binds to a receptor and has a cellular effect

Question 20

What is an antagonist?

Answer 20

A drug that binds to a receptor but does not have a cellular effect

Question 21

What is a competitive antagonist?

Answer 21

These bind to the same receptor as an agonist and shifts the dose effect curve to the right (it can be overcome with a high enough dose)
- binds to the site where the endogenous ligand is supposed to bind to, blocking access

Question 22

What is a noncompetitive antagonist?

Answer 22

These bind to same receptor but do not block access to the endogenous ligand binding site, but no matter how much dosage you use, you cannot overcome the effect of the antagonist)
- noncompetitive because they do not block access

Question 23

What does tolerance describe?

Answer 23

Decreased response with repeated administration and a higher dose is needed to have the same effect (deals with the x-axis only and only refers to the potency of a drug)

Question 24

What does sensitization describe?

Answer 24

Increased response with repeated administration and less drug is needed to have the same effect (deals with the x-axis only and only refers to the potency of a drug)

Question 25

How do antagonists affect the dose-response curve?

Answer 25

They shift the curve to the right, just like what happens with tolerance

Question 26

What is a set?

Answer 26

The state of an organism

Question 27

What is a setting?

Answer 27

the environmental circumstances surrounding administration

Question 28

How do we assess the effects of a drug on behaviour?

Answer 28

1. primary evaluation (unconditioned effects)
   - motor activity (balance, strength, etc)
   - eating and drinking
2. secondary evaluation (conditioned effects)
   - analgesia
   - learning and memory
   - anxiety
   - schedule-controlled behaviour (+ reinforcement, - reinforcement and punishment)