Introduction to pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics Flashcards
What is psychopharmacology?
The study of drug induced changes in mood, cognition and behaviour
What are psychoactive drugs?
Drugs that interact with our central nervous system (CNS)
What are pharmacokinetics?
What our bodies do to the drugs
What are the four parameters that affect the patterns of drug use?
ADME
- Administration and Absorption
- Distribution
- Metabolism
- Excretion
What does drug administration refer to?
Method of getting drugs into the body
What does drug absorption refer to?
Drugs crossing cellular barriers
What are the different methods of drug administration?
> Oral (e.g. tablet)
> Injection
- intramuscularly (IM)
- intravenously (IV)
- subcutaneous (SC)
> Inhalation
> Application to skin
> Via mucous membranes
- intranasal (sniffing)
- sublingual (under tongue)
What can the choice of administration depend on?
> Chemical characteristics of the drugs
> Personal preference
> How long the drug will persist in the body
> Concentration profile (dosage)
> Number and nature of membranes
Why does the intravenous injection method of administration has the fastest rate of absorption?
Drug goes directly into blood stream
-> no need to cross any cellular membrane
What happens when a drug reaches for the brain?
It’s longer to reach the brain
-> some of the drug will be lost
What are the six factors that determine the speed and success of a drug crossing a cellular barrier?
- Lipid solubility of the drug
- Ionisation of drug’s molecules
- pH of the drug
- Size of the drug
- Vehicle of the drug
- Concentration gradient along the membrane
How does the lipid solubility of a cellular membrane determine the speed and success of a drug crossing a cellular barrier?
Highly lipid soluble drugs (i.e. fatty drug molecules) are absorbed at increased rate
Why are highly lipid soluble drugs absorbed at increased rate in the cellular membrane?
Cell membranes predominantly consists of lipids and phospholipids
What is a lipid bilayer?
Basis of most animal cell membranes
- most abundant lipids in a membrane are phospholipids
Why does the ionisation of a drug’s molecules determine the speed and success of a drug crossing a cellular barrier?
> In a solution, part of drug’s molecules will ionise and become charged
> Increased ionisation leads to decreased rate of absorption (RoA)
Why does an increased ionisation of drug molecules lead to a decreased rate of movement across a membrane?
Due to negatively charged heads of the phospholipids in a membrane
How does the pH of a drug determine the speed and success of a drug crossing a cellular barrier?
> Similar pH between the drug and the fluids next to the membrane will result in little ionisation
-> increased rate of absorption (RoA)
> Differences in pH between drug and fluids surrounding the membrane will result in ionisation
-> decreased RoA
Why does the size of a drug’s molecules determine the speed and success of a drug crossing a cellular barrier?
Smaller molecules are absorbed a lot quicker than larger molecules (e.g. proteins)
What is the vehicle of a drug?
The solution that we dissolve our drug in
How does the vehicle of a drug determine the speed and success of a drug crossing a cellular barrier?
We can design slow or fast release vehicles to speed up or slow down the rate of absorption (RoA)
Why does the concentration gradient along the membrane determine the speed and success of a drug crossing a cellular barrier?
Force of diffusion
-> the greater the difference in concentration either side of a membrane, the greater the rate of movement across that membrane
What is the cellular force of diffusion?
Molecules tend to go from high concentration areas to low concentration areas
Why does the inhalation of vapours have a high rate of absorption?
- Lung is specialised for absorption (large surface area)
- Gaseous drugs have high lipid solubility and small molecular size
- > fast rate of absorption
Why do the intranasal and sublingual methods of administration have medium rates of absorption?
- Thin membranes BUT several layers
- > slow rate of absorption (RoA), even though there’s rich blood supply to mouth and nose
- It’s difficult to keep the drug in contact with the membranes
Why do the intramuscular and subcutaneous methods of administration have slow rates of absorption?
- Rate of absorption (RoA) depends on blood flow near injection site
- Fatty tissue would result in slow absorption
e. g. muscle problems -> altered blood flow to muscles which affects RoA
Why does oral administration of drugs have the slowest rate of absorption?
- In this way, absorption occurs in small intestine
- Small intestine has high blood supply, high surface area AND a range of pH levels