Drugs Flashcards
What are drugs?
Drugs are substances that change chemical reactions in the body.
What are the two different types of drugs?
Medicinal and Recreational.
What are medicinal drugs?
Medicinal drugs relieve disease and illness. They are also extensively tested before they are used.
What are recreational drugs?
Recreational drugs such as alcohol and tobacco are taken by people because they like the effects they have on their bodies, but they may be addictive. Cannabis and heroin are illegal recreational drugs that are very addictive.
Name three ways that new drugs can be tested.
- Drugs can be tested using computer models and human cells grown in the lab. Many substances fail this test because they damage cells or do not seem to work.
- Drugs that pass the first stage are tested on animals. In the UK, new medicines have to undergo these tests, but it is illegal to test cosmetics and tobacco products on animals. typical test involves giving a known amount of the substances to the animals, then monitoring them carefully for any side-effects.
- Drugs that have passed animal tests are used in clinical trials. They are tested on healthy volunteers to check they are safe. Very low does 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.
Give some of the disadvantages to clinical trials.
Some substances do not pass all of the tests and trials, so drug development is expensive and takes a long time.
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 have medicine.
What is a double blind trial?
The aim of a double blind trial is to minimise the placebo effect. Some patients are given the drug while others are given a placebo. A placebo is designed to appear exactly the same as the drug itself, but it does not contain any of the drug. The doctors and patients are not told who has received the drug and who received the placebo until the trial is over.
What was thalidomide used for in the 1950s-60s?
It was developed as a sleeping pill, but was also thought to be useful for easing morning sickness in women.
What were the problems with using thalidomide for pregnant women?
It caused babies to be born with shorter limbs. It affected more than 10,000 babies around the world.
Why was thalidomide banned?
Because babies were born with shorter limbs.
What is thalidomide used for today?
Thalidomide is now used to treat leprosy and bone cancer.
What happens when some people take drugs?
They become dependent on the drug or addicted to it.
What happens if someone stops taking a drug that they are addicted to?
They may suffer withdrawal symptoms.
What are alcohol and nicotine?
Legal recreational drugs.
