Individual Variation in drug responses

Question 1

analyze the effects of body weight, age, developmental state on drug metabolism

Answer 1

body weight: may need to give a smaller or bigger dose depending on the weight of the person
age: infants, young kids, and older adults are more sensitive to drugs and the effect that drugs have
developmental state: see above

Question 2

explain the effects of kidney or liver disease on drug metabolism

Answer 2

liver disease can cause drugs to accumulate.. If liver function declines, the rate of metabolism will decline, causing drug levels to climbs.

Question 3

define pharmacodynamic tolerance

Answer 3

Acute tolerance is mediated predominantly by pharmacodynamic mechanisms, manifested as a decreased response following a single administration of the agent or during repeat-dosing but over a short time frame.

Pharmacodynamic tolerance occurs when the intrinsic responsivity of the receptor system diminishes over time.

Not addiction tolerance

Question 4

discuss bioavailability and it’s clinical impact

Answer 4

bioavailability is the amount of active drug in the system.
Bioavailability becomes especially important when there is a narrow therapeutic range. Too low=therapeutic failure, too high=potential toxicity

Question 5

analyze the effect of food or lack of food on drug action

Answer 5

if a drug is taken with food, there is good reason for it. often the medicine needs the food so as not to be washed away, and to ensure the medicine is absorbed into the body properly.
if a drug is taken without food, it can have bad effects on people unless it’s supposed to be taken w/o food.

Question 6

regarding genetic variants, how do some breast cancer survivor’s benefit from the drug tamoxifen, and others don’t? Also with Codeine?

Answer 6

women with inadequate CYP2D6 activity cannot convert tamoxifen to its active form, therefore, the drug cannot adequately protect them from breast cancer. If adequate CYP2D6, it’s fine.

Question 7

discuss genetic and cultural variations and gender in response to beta blocking drugs, Herceptin

Answer 7

ASK

Question 8

name the issues in defining race

Answer 8

nearly impossible to define (skin color?, group genetics?)