Pharmacology Basics

Question 1

What is meant by pharmacokinetics?

Answer 1

what the body does to the medication - movement and modification of the drug by the body

Question 2

What are the 4 steps of pharmacokinetics?

Answer 2

ADME:
a - absorption
d - distribution
m - metabolism
e - excretion

Question 3

What is meant by pharmacodynamics?

Answer 3

what the drug does to the body e.g., binding to receptors, triggering signal cascades etc.

Question 4

What is meant by therapeutic index?

Answer 4

considers the safety of a drug, is a ratio of toxic dose/most effective dose

Question 5

What does a therapeutic index close to 1 mean?

Answer 5

the drug has a higher danger of toxicity, so should be monitored carefully

Question 6

List some examples of drugs with low therapeutic indexes

Answer 6

warfarin
digoxin
gentamycin

Question 7

What is meant by the term ‘agonist’?

Answer 7

the drug causes/activates a response

Question 8

What is meant by the term ‘antagonist’?

Answer 8

the drug deactivates/stops a response from happening

Question 9

What is bioavailability?

Answer 9

describes the proportion of the drug that passes into systemic circulation

Question 10

What is half-life?

Answer 10

the time taken for drug concentration to fall by half of its initial value

Question 11

Why is half-life important?

Answer 11

this helps determine the correct dose and how long side effects can be expected to last