NURS 200 Midterm Flashcards
(43 cards)
Medication Trade Name
brand name, often more expensive (ex. tylenol)
Medication Chemical name
exact elements (ex. C8H9NO2)
Medication Generic Name
medication with the exact same active ingredient as the brand-name drug (ex. acetaminophen)
Absorption of meds
- done in stomach and SI
- how long it takes drug to get from admin site to BS
- depends on size, lipid solubility, degree of ionization, interactions with food or other meds, liquid is faster than tablets, food decreases absorption rate
Distribution of meds
- done in bloodstream
- how agents are transported throughout the body
- depends on the formation of drug-protein complexes and special barriers (BBB, FPB)
- rapid distribution occurs in highly vascularized sites like the heart, liver, kidneys, brain
- slower: muscle, skin
- slowest: bone, fat
Metabolism of meds
- mostly in liver
- also known as biotransformation
- chemical conversion to a form that is more likely to be excreted
- increased drug metabolism can cause diminished pharmacologic effects
- delayed drug metabolism can cause accumulation of drugs in body to lethal levels, prolonged drug action
Excretion of meds
- in kidneys and LI
- removal of drugs from the body
4 processes of pharmacokinetics
Absorption, metabolism, distribution, excretion
Drug plasma concentration
- the concentration of drugs in the bloodstream
- determines their duration of action
Therapeutic response
depends on their concentration in the plasma
therapeutic range = toxic concentration - minimum effective concentration
Half-life
length of time required for a med to decrease concentration in the plasma by 1/2 after administration
Duration of action
length of time a drug concentration remains in the therapeutic range
Loading and maintenance dose
loading dose: higher amount of drug often given only once or twice to “prime” the BS with a level sufficient to quickly induce3 a therapeutic response
maintenance dose: this is given intermittently before plasma levels drop to 0 to keep the plasma drug concentration in the therapeutic range
Therapeutic index
- ratio of the lethal dose and minimal dose at which therapeutic effects occur
- higher index = larger difference b/w the LD50 (lethal) and ED50 (effective) = safer
- “it would take an error of the therapeutic index value times the average dose to be lethal”
Potency
required dose to produce a therapeutic effect
- if a drug is more potent, it will produce a therapeutic effect at a lower dose
Efficacy
- magnitude of max response that can be produced by a drug
- greater intensity of drug response
Cellular receptors and drug actions
cell signalling: perceive and respond to info from their environment through receptors
- meds bind to receptors to initiate their effects
- many receptors are cell surface proteins
- receptor ligands are molecules that activate or inhibit receptors
Type of Drug Receptor Interactions
agonists - produce same response as endogenous
antagonists - occupy a receptor and prevents endogenous reactions
partial agonist - med that produces a weaker or less efficacious response than an agonist
side effects
- predictable drug effects
- may occur even at therapeutic doses
- less serious than adverse effects
- tolerable
adverse effects
- undesirable & potentially harmful action caused by med
- minimized through: getting med hx, prevention of med errors, questioning unusual orders, pt education on adverse effects
drug allergies
6-10% of all adverse drug effects
idiosyncratic response
adverse drug effect producing unusual & unexpected symptoms not related to pharmacological action, not allergies bc they are not immune related, often caused by genetic differences among clients (mutations)
drugs that have the ability to induce cancer
- antineoplastic
- hormones and hormone antagonists
- immunosuppressants
drugs that have the ability to cause birth defects
Teratogenic
