Pharmacodynamics

Question 1

What are agonists?

Answer 1

endogenous molecules or drugs that interact with a receptor to elicit a biological response

Question 2

What are antagonists?

Answer 2

endogenous molecules or drugs that interact with a receptor and limit or block the effect of agonists

Question 3

What is the direct action of a drug?

Answer 3

Drug produces the desired response

Question 4

What is the indirect action of a drug?

Answer 4

Drug interacts on target that is upstream from the biochemical process that produes the desired response

Question 5

What is a full agonist?

Answer 5

Produce the maximum possible effects

Question 6

What is a partial agonist?

Answer 6

Produce submaximal effects

Question 7

What is a competitive antagonist?

Answer 7

Competes with the agonist for the same receptor binding site

Question 8

What is pharmacodynamics?

Answer 8

What the drug does to the body

Question 9

Give some examples of a drug having an indirect effect

Answer 9

1. Opposing a physiological effect
2. Increasing endogenous release
3. Preventing endogenous release
4. Inhibiting endogenous re-uptake
5. Inhibiting endogenous metabolism

Question 10

What is an example of a full agonist?

Answer 10

Drug that provides the maximum possible effect

Question 11

What is an example of a partial agonist?

Answer 11

Drug that produces submaximal effects

Question 12

What is an example of an antagonist?

Answer 12

Limits or blocks the effect of agonists

Question 13

What is drug efficacy?

Answer 13

Drug efficacy is the ability of a drug to ellicit a response once bound to a drug target

Question 14

What is drug potency?

Answer 14

refers to the amount of a drug, expressed as the concentration or dose, needed to produce a
defined effect

Question 15

What is drug affinity?

Answer 15

The binding strength of a drug to its target

Question 16

What is drug selectivity?

Answer 16

is a drug’s ability to discriminate
between drug targets

Question 17

What is an adverse drug reaction?

Answer 17

terms that refer to any harmful or undesirable response to a drug

Question 18

What is a type A drug reaction?

Answer 18

linked to the pharmacological effects of a drug
thus are predictable/dose-dependent

Question 19

What is a type B drug reaction?

Answer 19

have no link with the pharmacological mechanism
of action and are thus unpredictable/idiosyncratic

Question 20

What is the therapeutic range of a drug?

Answer 20

A drug needs to reach a certain level in the plasma to achieve
the necessary concentration at its site of action to be fully
effective – the Therapeutic range

Question 21

What happens when a drug is below the therapeutic range?

Answer 21

Below the therapeutic range, the drug will not achieve the
necessary concentration at its site of action and its effect will be
suboptimal clinically

Question 22

What is the MEC/ minimum effective concentration?

Answer 22

Minimum effective concentration (MEC) is the minimum plasma
concentration required to produce the therapeutic effect

Question 23

What happens when a drug reaches ABOVE a certain concentration?

Answer 23

Above a certain concentration, a drug will cause unacceptable
toxic effects

Question 24

What is the minimal toxic concentration?

Answer 24

Minimum toxic concentration (MTC) is the minimum plasma
concentration at which unacceptable toxicity occurs.

Question 25

What is the therapeutic index?

Answer 25

a measure of drug safety, is the ratio
between the dose/concentration of a drug producing toxicity and the
dose/concentration that produces a therapeutic effect

Question 26

What is drug tolerance?

Answer 26

is the diminished response to a
drug following repeated or prolonged exposure