drug development and testing

Question 1

what are three examples of naturally occuring drugs?

Answer 1

aspirin,
digitalis,
penicilin

Question 2

what is aspirin?

Answer 2

a painkiller which originally was developed from the bark of willow trees

Question 3

what is digitalis?

Answer 3

a drug which treats heart problem and was originally developed from a chemical in foxgloves

Question 4

what must substances which doctors think coul potentialy treat ilness undergo?

Answer 4

testing

Question 5

what do drug tests test for?

Answer 5

eficacy, toxicity, dosage

Question 6

what is the eficacy of a drug?

Answer 6

how well the drug works

Question 7

what is the toxicity of a drug?

Answer 7

how harmful it is (any side effects)

Question 8

what is the dosage of a drug?

Answer 8

how much of the drug is given

Question 9

what does more dosage equal and what does it mean?

Answer 9

more dosage = more efficacy but also more toxicity
this means that the dosage must be just right with enough eficacy but not too much toxicity

Question 10

what is the first stage of drug testing?

Answer 10

substances are tested on human cells

Question 11

what is the second stage of drug testing?

Answer 11

substances are tested on live animals to understand the efficacy and toxicity

Question 12

what can the first two stages of drug testing be described as?

Answer 12

pre-clinical

Question 13

what is the third stage of drug testing?

Answer 13

substances are given to healthy volunteers at a low dosage.

Question 14

how is dosage tested at the third stage of drug testing?

Answer 14

low dosage is slowly increased, whilst checking for side effects - the aim is to find the maximum dosage without side effects

Question 15

what is stafe 4 of drug testing?

Answer 15

drug is given to those who are suffering from the illness - dosage is slowly increased until the optimum dosage is found

Question 16

what is the optimum dosage?

Answer 16

when eficacy is maximised but toxicity is minimised

Question 17

placebos are used to ensure that drug tests are fair and that results are valid. What are they?

Answer 17

drugs that look like the real thing but are ineffective. Half of patients get the real drug, half get the placebo

Question 18

what is double blind testing how does it ensure that results are fair and valid?

Answer 18

when neither the patient or the doctor know which drug is real and which is placebo

Question 19

how does double blind testing ensure that results are fair and valid?

Answer 19

it avoids bias, if volunteers knew they were taking the real drug, they were more likely to report side effects

Question 20

what is peer review?

Answer 20

when tests are analysed by other scientists to validate theories and avoid false claims being published