Developing Drugs Flashcards
What do medical drugs do?
Medical drugs relieve disease and illness, and are extensively tested before being used
What are recreational drugs used for?
Recreational drugs e.g alcohol and tobacco are taken by people because they like the effects they have on their bodies, but they can be addictive.
What are the three main stages of testing new medical drugs?
- The drugs are tested using computer models and human cells grown in the lab. Many substances fail this test because they damage cells or don’t seem to work.
- Drugs that past the first stage are tested on animals. In the UK new machines have to undergo these tests, but it is illegal to test cosmetics and tobacco products on animals. A typical test involves giving a known amount if the substance to the animals, then monitoring them carefully for any side effects.
- Drugs that have passed the animal tests are used in clinical trials. They are tested on healthy volunteers to check they are safe. Very low doses of the drug are given to begin with. If there are no problems, further clinical trials are done to find the optimum dose for the drug
What is the placebo effect?
It is important to be certain that a drug really does have positive effects, rather than people feeling better simply because they expect to feel better if they take a medicine. This is called the placebo effect.
What do double blind trials aim to minimise?
The placebo effect
What happens during double blind trials?
Some patients are given the drug while others are given a placebo
What is a placebo?
A placebo is designed to appear exactly the same as the drug itself, but doesn’t actually contain any of the drug.
What are drugs?
Drugs are substances that change chemical reactions in the body.
Why was thalidomide developed?
Thalidomide was developed as a sleeping pill but it was also thought to be useful for easing morning sickness in pregnant women. Unfortunately, it had not been tested for use this way.
How many babies were effected by the use of thalidomide?
More than 10,000 babies. As a result of this disaster, thalidomide was banned.
What is thalidomide used to treat now?
Leprosy and bone cancer.
What is thalidomide?
Thalidomide is a medical drug that caused unexpected and serious damage to unborn babies in the 1950s and 1960s.
What do drugs change?
Chemical processes in the body.
What happens if people stop taking drugs?
People may become dependant on the drug or addicted to it, and may suffer withdrawal symptoms if they stop taking the drug.
What is the alcohol in alcoholic drinks such as wines, beer and spirits?
Ethanol
