drugs Flashcards
What is pharmacology?
The study of all aspects regarding drugs and medicines.
What is pharmacokinetics?
How the body handles drugs - stages consisting of the route of administration, absorption, distribution, metabolism and elimination/excretion.
What are the routes of administration?
There are 2 main routes:
Enteral consist of oral and rectal administration.
Parenteral consist of injections, transdermal, nasal and mucus membranes.
what are the advantages and disadvantages of enteral route?
Oral advantages are normally quick route - reaching liver to be metabolised quickly
Disadvantages - toxic in stomach as stomach contains alot of acids. Also may be rejected through sickness etc.
Rectal advantages - can be used when not being able to take tablets orally.
Disadvantages - uncomfortable and stigma attached to it - cultures do not accept it.
What are advantages of parenteral transdermal routes?
Transdermal - advantages include being able to administer drug through different amounts of time etc. However, may not be practical as sweat or wet they come off, arent practical for large amounts of drug - patches cannot be made big enough.
What are advantages and disadvantages of injections (subcutaneous/ intramuscular/ intravenous)
Subcutaneous - through the skin advantages get into blood circulation quickly
Intravenous - adv quickest route of administration / disadvantages very dangerous.
What is absorption and distribution?
Absorption is how the body takes in the drug.
Distribution - How the body gets to the sites of action.
What is metabolism?
How the body transforms the drug into different compounds - most drugs need to be metabolised to get eliminated from the body or to get passed blood-brain barrier.
What is elimination?
How the body gets rid of the drug through different process e.g urine via kidneys/ breathe e.g. alcohol/ mucus membranes e.g. sweat.
What is pharmacodynamics?
How the drug impacts the body/ behaviour and mood.
- drugs mechansim of action- how it impacts the bodys processes - physiology/ biochem etc.
How can we compare drugs and see which are more beneficial?
Through dose-response curves.
What are dose-response curves?
used to quantify drug effects through calculating its effect based on its concentration at sites of action and its ability to bind to receptors (affinity)
what is potency of a drug?
Amount of concentration/ dose of drug needed to produce desired effect
What is drug efficacy?
amount of drug needed to produce maximal effects.
what is the therapeutic index?
Using dose-response curves we can calculate and compare dosage of drug needed to produce desired effects and doage of that drug when it becomes toxic/ dangerous.
We can then compare between different drugs to use safest one.
