Drugs

Question 1

What are the 2 types of drugs and give e.gs?

Answer 1

Recreational e.g. caffeine, alcohol, cocaine. Medicinal e.g. penicillin

Question 2

What are medicinal drugs used for?

Answer 2

Painkillers and to treat bacterial infections (can’t treat viruses)

Question 3

How did Alexander Fleming discover penicillin?

Answer 3

Went away on holiday when there were many dirty test things in the lab. When he got back, he discovered a mould (penicillin) on some things that had created a zone of inhibition around it (prevented bacteria from going in it

Question 4

How can we test the effectiveness of antibiotics?

Answer 4

Put the antibiotics in a test thing, wait for bacteria to grow. Around the antibiotics, a ring should appear around it that is clear of bacteria (πr squared)

Question 5

What are the tests medicinal drugs need to go through to be licensed to sell?

Answer 5

1. Test in lab on tissues
2. Animals
3. Healthy volunteers
4. Small number of patients
5. Large number of patients

Question 6

What is a placebo?

Answer 6

A lookalike of the real drug to see if it’s just the mental aspect of getting a ‘medicine’ or if the real medicine actually treats it.

Question 7

What is a double blind test?

Answer 7

Half are given the placebo, half are given the real one : neither the person administering the drug or the person taking it knows which is which - fair test