How Drugs Work in the Body and Mind Flashcards
What are the two manners of use with psychoactive drugs?
Instrumental and Recreational
What are Psychoactive Drugs?
Drugs that alter mood, perception, and behavior by acting in the nervous system. (i.e. cocaine, LSD, marijuana, alcohol, nicotine etc…)
What is a drug generic name?
Name given to specify chemical structure and similarities to other drugs.
What is a drug trade name?
Name given to a drug for marketing purposes.
What is a drug street name?
Name given to a drug by those who use, sell or make recreational drugs.
What is Pharmacodynamics?
How drugs cause biological changes in the body.
What is Pharmacokinetics?
How drugs move throughout the body.
What is Pharmacogenetics?
How genetic differences influence a drug’s pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics which provide the basis for differences in drug response between individuals.
What is the route of administration of a drug?
How drugs enter the body.
What are the four principles of general pharmacology (pharmacokinetics)?
Absorption
Distribution
Metabolism
Elimination
What are the 8 ways a drug can enter the body?
Oral Intravenous Intramuscular Subcutaneous Inhalation Sublingual Transdermal Nasal and Mucosal Membrane
What is Distribution?
The passage of a drug through the body.
What is bioavailability?
Ability of a drug to reach the site of action.
Bioavailability depends on a being able to cross what barrier?
The blood-brain barrier.
What is Drug Metabolism?
Process of converting drugs into metabolites.
Where does most drug metabolism happen in the body?
The Liver
Which enzymes effect the metabolism of drugs?
Cytochrome P450 enzymes (CYP-1, CYP-2 and CYP-3)
Polymorphisms leads to poor metabolizers called?
Ultra-rapid Metabolizers
Which method of absorption is the fastest?
Intravenous
What is a prodrug?
A biologically inactive compound that can be metabolized in the body to produce a drug.
Metabolism of a prodrug leads to the production of?
Active metabolites
What are three characteristics of Active transport?
- Water Soluble
- Fast uptake
- Fast elimination
What are three characteristics of Passive Transport?
- Fat Soluble
- Slow uptake
- Slow elimination
What is drug elimination?
Process by which a drug leaves the body.
What are five ways the body uses to eliminate a drug?
Urine Feces Sweat Saliva Breath
What is Elimination Rate?
The amount of drug eliminated from the body over time. Typically occurs in half-lives.
What are two reasons an Elimination Rate is used?
- To determine how frequently patients should tae a medication.
- To produce a steady state in the patients body.
What is a main reason half-lives are used?
To determine when later administrations of a drug should be given.
Most psychoactive drugs action occurs where?
At the synapses
What are four ways psychoactive drugs can alter the different states of neurotransmission?
- Action potentials
- Neurotransmitter synthesis and storage
- Neurotransmitter binding to a receptor
- Neurotransmitter metabolism and re-uptake
Four forms of acute drug interactions are?
- Additive interaction
- Hyperadditive (synergistic) interaction
- Potentiation (a special kind of synergism
- Antagonistic interactions
Four forms of individual interactions are?
- Gender
- Age
- Body weight
- Ethnic variability
Most psychoactive drugs act on receptors for?
Neurotransmitters
What is Binding Affinity?
A drugs strength to bind to a receptor.
What is receptor efficacy?
A drugs ability to alter the activity of a receptor.
What is a dissociation constant?
A drugs concentration necessary for receptor binding.
What is an Agonist?
It fully activates a receptor?
What is an Antagonist?
It fails to activate a receptor.
What is a Partial Agonist?
It weakly activates a receptor.
What is a inverse Agonist?
It reduces a receptors constitutive activity.
What is a competitive antagonist?
It binds to the same site as a neurotransmitter. It prevents a neurotransmitter from binding to a receptor.
What is a Non-competitive antagonist?
It binds to the active site of the receptor or allosteric site of the receptor. It prevents a neurotransmitter from activating a receptor.
Negative or positive modulators bind to sites distant from the neurotransmitter site called?
Allosteric sites.
What increases the ability of a neurotransmitter to bind to and activate receptors?
Positive modulators
What decreases the ability of a neurotransmitter to bind to and activate a receptor?
A negative modulator
What is chronic drug use?
Repeated use of a drug typically on a daily basis.
Three unique features of chronic drug use?
Tolerance
Sensitization
Dependence
What is Tolerance?
The adaption to a drugs effects. Usually requires the user to take greater doses of a drug to achieve same drug effects as before.
Three forms of Tolerance?
- Pharmacokinetic - reduced amount of drug reaches site of action.
- Pharmacodynamic - reduced responsiveness at drugs site of action.
- Behavioral - decreased behavioral response.
What is Cross Tolerance?
The tolerance effects for a drug carry over to other drugs with similar biological actions.
What is the increased responsiveness to a drug’s effects?
Sensitization
What is it called when a user needs a drug to function normally?
Dependence
Physical withdrawal symptoms such as dizziness and nausea are characteristic of?
Physical Dependence
Psychological withdrawal symptoms such as drug cravings and changes in mood are characteristic of?
Psychological dependence
Withdrawal symptoms result from?
Compensatory adaptive changes. i.e. your body is trying to compensate and adapt to the changes in the body due to a drug no longer being in the system.
A chronic heroin addict can be overdosed when taking a normal dose of the drug when a significant change of _______ is made.
Environment
Protective factors for drug taking behavior include:
- Intact home environment
- Positive educational experience
- Conventional peer relationships
Risk factors of drug taking behavior in adolescence include:
- Tendency toward nonconformity within society
- Influence of drug using peers.
