Lecture 1 - Introduction

Question 1

What is pharmacy? What type of services does is provide?

Answer 1

Profession charged with ensuring safe and optimal use of medication

Traditionally compounded and dispensed but now can provide clinical practises, medication reviews and drug information

Question 2

What are the three main disciplines of pharmacy

Answer 2

Industrial
Pharmaceutical sciences
Pharmacy practice

Question 3

What is pharmacodynamics (PD)?

Answer 3

The study of biochemical and physiological effects of drugs on the body, mechanisms of drug action and relationship between drug concentration and effect (what the drug does to the body)

Question 4

What is the foundation concept of PD? Why is it important?

Answer 4

Receptor binding

Used to determine the equilibrium concentration (not too little, not too much)

Question 5

What is pharmacokinetics (PK)?

Answer 5

The study of what the body does to the drug. It’s dedicated to determine the movement and fate of administered drugs

Question 6

What does ADME stand for? What does it describe?

Answer 6

ADME: absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion

It describes the disposition of a drug

Question 7

What is pharmaceutics?

Answer 7

Science of dosage form design and deals with the formulation of pure drug substance into dosage form

Question 8

What are some examples of different dosage forms (6)?

Answer 8

Tablets, capsules, syrups, solutions for injection, suppositories, transdermal patches

Question 9

What is pharmacology?

Answer 9

Deal with how drugs interact within biological systems to affect function or how drugs interact with living organisms to produce a change in function

Question 10

What are the many sub-disciplines of pharmacology (7)?

Answer 10

Clinical pharmacology
Pharmacogenomics
Toxicology
PK-PD
Pharmacogenetics
Pharmacoepidemiology
Pharmcognosy (plant drugs)

Question 11

What is clinical pharmacology? What is it’s main objective?

Answer 11

Science of drugs and their clinical use. It connects the gaps between medical practise and laboratory science. It’s main objective is to promote safety and efficacy of prescribed medication

Question 12

What are some of the responsibilities of clinical pharmacologists (4)?

Answer 12

Analyzing adverse drug effects
Therapeutics and toxicology
Perioperative drug management
Psychopharmacology

Question 13

What is pharmacogenomics?

Answer 13

Deals with the influence of genetic variation drug response by correlating gene expression with a drug’s efficacy or toxicity. It aims to develop rational means to optimize drug therapy with respect to the patients’ genotype

Question 14

What is pharmacogenetics?

Answer 14

It examines single gene interactions with drugs

Question 15

What is toxicology?

Answer 15

Study of the adverse effects of chemicals and drugs on living organisms.
Study of symptoms, mechanisms, treatments and detection of poisoning.
Study of the relationship between dose and its effects on the exposed organism

Question 16

What is the LD50

Answer 16

Refers to the dose of toxic substance that kills 50% of a test population

Question 17

What is pharmacognosy?

Answer 17

Study of medicines derived from natural sources (ex. quinine, physostigmine, tubocurare, pilocarpine, digoxin)

Question 18

What is medicinal chemistry?

Answer 18

Involves the identification, synthesis and development of new chemical entities suitable for therapeutic use. Also includes the study of existing drugs, their biological properties, and their quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR)

Question 19

What are adverse effects?

Answer 19

A harmful and undesired effect resulting from a medication. It may be termed “side-effect” when judged to be secondary to a main or therapeutic effect. They can include drug interactions. They can lead to non-compliance with a treatment regimen

Question 20

What is an iatrogenic adverse effect?

Answer 20

An adverse effect generated by a care-giver or treatment (ex. unsuitable or incorrect dosage)

Question 21

What is pharmacovigilance?

Answer 21

Pharmacological science relating to the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects (particularly long term side effects)

Question 22

What is evidence-based medicine (EBM)?

Answer 22

EBM aims to apply evidence gained from the scientific method to parts of the medical practice

Question 23

What is pharmaceutical care? What are the outcomes of it?

Answer 23

The responsible provision of drug therapy for the purpose of achieving definite outcomes that improve a patient’s quality of life. That outcomes include: cure of a disease, elimination or reduction of patient’s symptoms, arresting or slowing of a disease process, preventing disease, etc.