Drug testing

• William Wurthering's digitalis soup

  • remedy for dropsy - swelling of tissue due to accumalation of excess water - now called oedema
  • remedy used foxglove and an active ingredient in it called digitalis
  • too much can result in poisoning
  • too little had no effect
• Finiding optimum dosage

  • starting with small doses
  • slowly increasing and monitoring its effects
• Stages of drug testing

  1. drug tested on human tissue and cells grown in a lab and computer models predict the affect of them
  2. tested on animals to view side effects
  3. Clinical trials on human volunteers
• Clinical trial phases

  1. small group of healthy volunteers (side effects + area of body it affects + how long it stays)
  2. small group with illness (effectiveness + optimum dosage)
  3. large number of participants with illness (effectiveness, side effects, dosage, longer term effects, who it can be used on, compare to existing treatment)
• Techniques to avoid bias and false result

  • placebo groups
  • double blind trials
  • peer review
• Placebo group

  • a groups takes a placebo with no active ingredient
  • placebo effect is where the patient improves because psychologically they believe it will help
  • compares placebo to also see if its more effective than the psychological effect
• Double blind trials

  • patient and doctor doesnt know which is the placebo and which is the active ingredient
• Peer review

  • where studies are reviewed by other professionals to ensure theyre accurate, well carried out and significant