Ch. 2 Terminology

Question 1

absorption

Answer 1

what happens to a drug from the time it enters the body until it enters the circulating fluid; IV administration causes the drug to directly enter the circulating blood, bypassing the many complications of absorption from other routes

Question 2

distribution

Answer 2

movement of drug to body tissues; places where the drug may be distributed depend on the drug’s solubility, perfusion of the area, cardiac output, and binding of the drug to plasma proteins

Question 3

metabolism

Answer 3

the process by which drugs are changes into new, less active chemicals to be excreted

Question 4

excretion

Answer 4

removal of a drug from the body; primarily occurs in the kidneys but can also occur through the skin, lungs, bile or feces

Question 5

first-pass effect

Answer 5

a phenomenon in which drugs given orally are carried directly the liver after absorption, where they may be largely inactivated by liver enzymes before they can enter the general circulation; oral drugs frequently are given in higher doses than drugs given by other rouges because of this early breakdown.

Question 6

half-life

Answer 6

the time it takes for the amount of drug in the body to decrease to one half of the peak level it previously achieved

Question 7

loading dose

Answer 7

use of a higher dose than what is usually used for treatment to allow the drug to reach the critical concentration sooner

Question 8

pharmacodynamics

Answer 8

the way a drug affects the body

Question 9

pharmacokinetics

Answer 9

this is how the body acts on drugs

Question 10

selective toxicity

Answer 10

property of a chemotherapy agent that affects only systems found in foreign cells without affecting healthy human cells