Basic Pharmacology Flashcards
(28 cards)
What is pharmacokinetics?
Deals with the absorption, distribution, biotransformation, and elimination of a drug (the movement of the drug in the body)
- increases or decreases the efficacy of the same compound (ex. route of administration is very important to determine the efficacy of a drug)
What is pharmacodynamics?
The biochemical effects of drugs and their mechanism of action
What does a half-life describe?
The time for the plasma concentration level to react half its peak (most addictive substances are ones that have a very short lived half life)
What are some examples of naturally occurring drugs?
cocaine, opium
What are some examples of semi-synthetic drugs?
Heroin
What are some examples of synthetic drugs?
Amphetamine
How can we classify drugs?
- based on their behavioural effects
- depressants
- stimulants
- hypnotics - based on their legal classification
- schedule I (most addictive) to schedule V (least)
What are some routes of administration?
- oral
- parenteral
- pulmonary
- topical
- subcutaneous
What does a drug need in order to have an effect?
It needs to be able to act on a receptor (no receptor for that substance? no effect)
What does the maximum effect describe?
The point at which all receptors are occupied by a drug
What is a side effect?
Any unintentional effect of a drug
How is it possible that one drug can have many effects?
Either
1. the drug acts on multiple receptors
or
2. the receptors are found in multiple locations
What does an S-curve describe?
The effect of a drug (something specific like attention) based on the dosage
What does potency describe?
The dose needed to have an effect (more potent = less of a drug to have an effect)
- represents differences along the x-axis of a dose-response curve
What is efficacy?
The maximum effect at the ceiling (describes the differences in the y-axis on a dose-response curve)
What is ED50?
The dose that produces an effect in 50% of the population
What is LD50 (or TD50)?
The dose that kills 50% of the population
What is the therapeutic index?
The difference between the effective dose and the toxic dose (TI = LD50/ED50)
What is an agonist?
A drug that binds to a receptor and has a cellular effect
What is an antagonist?
A drug that binds to a receptor but does not have a cellular effect
What is a competitive antagonist?
These bind to the same receptor as an agonist and shifts the dose effect curve to the right (it can be overcome with a high enough dose)
- binds to the site where the endogenous ligand is supposed to bind to, blocking access
What is a noncompetitive antagonist?
These bind to same receptor but do not block access to the endogenous ligand binding site, but no matter how much dosage you use, you cannot overcome the effect of the antagonist)
- noncompetitive because they do not block access
What does tolerance describe?
Decreased response with repeated administration and a higher dose is needed to have the same effect (deals with the x-axis only and only refers to the potency of a drug)
What does sensitization describe?
Increased response with repeated administration and less drug is needed to have the same effect (deals with the x-axis only and only refers to the potency of a drug)
