Week 1 Introduction to Pharmacology Flashcards
Therapeutics is also known as…
pharmacotherapeutics
what is therapeutics
The use of drugs to diagnose, prevent, or treat disease or to prevent pregnancy
3 most important properties of an ideal drug
effectiveness
safety
selectivity
what is the selectivity of a drug mean
Drug elicits only the response for which it is given
also called side effects
adverse effects
the additional properties of an ideal drug
reversible action predictability Ease of administration Freedom from drug interactions Low cost Chemical stability Simple generic name
nurse responsibilities with drugs
Administering drugs
Assessing drug effects
Intervening to make the drug regimen more tolerable
Providing patient teaching about drugs and drug regimens
Monitoring the overall patient care plan to prevent medication errors
Factors That Determine the Intensity of Drug Responses
Administration
Pharmacokinetics
Pharmacodynamics
Sources of individual variation
Four major pharmacokinetic processes
Drug absorption Drug distribution Drug metabolism Drug excretion time course of drug responses
what is troche for?
yeast or fungal infections of the mouth
clinical pharmacology
Study of drugs in humans
what does pharmacokinetics deal with?
absorption
distribution
metabolism
excretion
what does pharmacodynamics deal with?
(impact of drugs in the body)
- Drug-receptor interaction
- Patient’s functional state
- Placebo effects
Orphan drugs
Drugs that have been discovered but would not be profitable for a drug company to develop
what does PRN mean?
“as needed”
2 major areas in which pharmacologic knowledge can be applied?
patient care
patient education
clinical testing phase I
human volunteers
clinical testing Phase II
clinical investigators to try out drug on patients who have the disease that drug is designed to treat
clinical testing Phase III
use of drug in a vast clinical market
clinical testing Phase IV
Postmarketing surveillance
3 ways to cross a cell membrane
Channels and pores
Transport systems
Direct penetration of the membrane
Factors Affecting Drug Absorption
Rate of dissolution Surface area Blood flow Lipid solubility pH partitioning
anything taken orally will go through…
the liver
- first pass
Critical Concentration
The amount of drug that is needed to cause a therapeutic effect
Half-life of a drug
the time it takes for the amount of drug in the body to decrease to one half of the peak level it previously achieved