Pharmacology

Question 1

What is pharmacology?

Answer 1

study of drug action

Question 2

What is clinical pharmacology?

Answer 2

the application of pharmacological principles in patient care

Question 3

What is therapeutics?

Answer 3

the attempted remediation of a health problem, usually following a diagnosis (“treatment”)

Question 4

What drugs are on the summary of the dental practitioner’s list?

Answer 4

Antiseptics
Antibacterial Drugs
Antifungal Drugs
Antiviral Drugs
Artificial Saliva
Drugs for Oral Ulceration
Analgesics and pain management
Anxiety management
Vitamins
Fluorides
Antihistamines
Decongestants

Question 5

List some examples of drugs that are schedule 1-5

Answer 5

Schedule 1 - no medicinal use e.g. ecstasy or LSD
schedule 2 - Subject to full controlled requirements but have medicinal use e.g. cocaine (vasoconstrictor)
e.g. heroin (diamorphine – given for MI)

Schedule 3 – subject to written requirements, but not safe custody requirements or keep registers – just invoices for 2 yrs e.g. midazolam, temazepam

Schedule 4 – Benzodiazepines other than midaz/temaz and also Z-drugs (murdered writer!) – no CD requirements

Schedule 5 – Due to strength, are exempt from CD requriements – e.g. Oramorph

Question 6

What are the 4 main parts of a prescription?

Answer 6

Patient details - name, age, date of birth, address
what you are prescribing - name, dose, frequency, timing, how long for, whether to take with something etc
signing - sign with name, date, signature
practice details - stamp

make sure to scribble after you’ve written

Question 7

What does PRN, stat, QDS, BD, TDS mean?

Answer 7

PRN – Pro re nata (as required)
Stat – statim (immediately)
QDS – quater die sumendus (4 times daily)
BD – bis in die (actually b.i.d) (twice daily)
TDS – ter die sumendus (three times daily)
nocte - at night

Question 8

What do you do if there is an adverse drug reaction?

Answer 8

You must inform the MHRA (medicine and healthcare products regulatory agrency) about serious suspected adverse reactions to all medicines marked with a Black Triangle in the BNF (Yellow card)

You should also:

Report all serious patient incidents to the National Reporting and Learning System if such incidents are not automatically reported where you work

Inform the patient’s general practitioner, the pharmacy that supplied the medicine, the local controlled drugs accountable officer and the medicines manufacturer

Question 9

What are the BNF sections ordered by?

Answer 9

Drug classes - preamble at start of each section about important aspects of the drugs

Question 10

What is the easiest way to find where a drug is in the BNF

Answer 10

Index - has all meds in alphabetical order