Midterm module 1.4 Pharmacology Flashcards
What is a drug?
Any chemical that affects the physiological process of a living organism
Why learn pharmacology?
1) Empower your decision making.
2) Provides safer patient care
3) Meet BCCNP standards of practice
4) Decreases medication errors
Explain therapeutic classification vs pharmacological classification
What its useful for vs. how it does what it does
what is a loading dose
a higher amount of the drug given normally once or twice to prime the blood stream with a level sufficient to induce a therapeutic response
what is a maintenance dose
before plasma levels can drop back towards zero, intermittent maintenances doses are given to keep the plasma drug levels in the therapeutic range
what are pharmacodynamics
what the drug do to the body & how they do it
what are pharmacokinetic
how the body acts on the drug (absorb, excrete etc.)
What is maximal efficacy
the largest effect that a drug can produce
what is relative potency
amount of drug that must be given to elicit an effect
what are agonist
molecules that activate receptors. When drugs act as agonist they bind to the receptor & mimic the action of the bodies own endogenous regulatory molecules.
what are antagonists
produce their effects by preventing receptor activation by endogenous regulatory molecules & drugs. Can produce beneficial pharmacological effects by preventing the activation of receptors by agonists
do all drugs need receptors?
no some act through physical or chemical interactions
what is the therapeutic index?
measurement of drug safety. It is the ratio of LD 50 to ED50
what are the 3 possible consequences of drug interactions
1) Potentiative interaction
2) Inhibitory interaction
3) Creation of a unique response
what are the individual variations in drug responses
1) Body weight & composition
2) Age
3) Pathophysiology (Hepatic function, Renal Function, Acid-base imbalance, altered electrolytes)
4) Tolerance
5) placebo
6) Bioavailability
7) Variable absorption
8) Genetics
9) Gender
10) Race/Ethnocultural considerations
11) polypharmacy
12) Diet
13) Compliance
What is pharmacogenetics
New field of study that develops effective & safe medication dosages specific to an indidivuals DNA, therefore decreasing adverse effects
what is a frequency distribution curve?
A graphical representation of the number of patients responding to a drug action at different doses
what is the median effective dose
the dose required to produce a specific therapeutic response in 50% of a group of patients
what is the median lethal dose
The dose of a drug that will be lethal in 50% of a group of animals
what is the therapeutic index
A measure of a drugs safety margin :the higher the value the safer the drug
what is the median toxicity dose
the dose that will give a given toxicity in 50% of patients
what is the the graded dose response
by observing & measuring a patients response obtained at different doses of the drug, one can explain several important clinical relationships
what is potency
a drug that has more of this will produce a therapeutic effect at a lower dose, compared with other drugs in the same class
what is efficacy
The magnitude of a maximal response that can be produced form a particular drug. A drug is considered to have more efficacy when it produces a higher maximal response
what is receptor
A cellular macromolecule to which a medication binds to in orderr to initiate its effects
