Medications

• • Medication
  • A substance used in the diagnosis, treatment, cure, relief, or prevention of health alteration
• • Drug
  • Any substance that alters physiologic function, with the potential of affecting health
• • Pharmacology
  • Study of the effects of drugs on living organism
• 3 Drug Administration Purposes

  1. Diagnostic purposes
  2. Prophylaxis
  3. Therapeutic purposes
• Therapeutic effects

  referred to as the desired effect, the primary effect intended
• • Side Effect
  • aka the secondary effect or unintended effect
• • Side Effect
  • Usually predictable and may be either harmless or harmful
• • Adverse Effect
  • more severe side effects
• Drug Allergy

  • Immunologic reaction to drug
• Anaphylactic shock

  severe allergic reaction
• Drug Tolerance

  • person exhibits unusual low physiologic response to a drug
• Drug Tolerance

  • requires patient to increase in dosage to maintain desired effect
• Cumulative Effect

  increasing response to repeated doses of a drug that occurs when the rate of administration exceeds the rate of metabolism or excretion
• Idiosyncratic effect

  adverse drug reactions that do not occur in most patients at any dose
• • Drug Interaction
  • administration of one drug before or the same time, or after another drug, alters the effects of one or both drug
• Potentiating effect

  effect of one or both drugs may be increased
• Inhibiting effect

  effect of one or both drugs may be decreased
• Synergistic effect

  two different drugs increase the action of each other
• Iatrogenic effect

  disease caused unintentionally by medical therapy
• 8 Factors Affecting Medication Action

  1. Developmental Factors
  2. Gender
  3. Culture, Ethnic and Genetic Factors
  4. Diet
  5. Environment
  6. Psychological Factors
  7. Illness and Diseases
  8. Time of Administration
• Developmental Factors

  • In infants, body systems are not fully developed, they may have trouble breaking down or excreting drugs
• Developmental Factors

  • Smaller doses or different drugs may be required when treating the very old or the very young
• Females

  have a higher percent body fat than males which can affect the distribution of certain drugs
• Renal clearance of unchanged drug is decreased in females due to a:

  lower glomerular filtration
• Pharmacogenetics

  The study of genetic differences in the response to drugs.
• Ethnopharmacology

  is the study of the effect of racial and ethnic differences to prescribed medication
• Temperature

  can affect the action of drugs as heat and cold influence body functions
• Heat

  relaxes the blood vessels and speeds up circulation so drugs act faster
• Cold

  slows their action by constricting the blood vessels and slowing circulation
• High altitude

  makes some drugs ineffective because of the lower levels of oxygen
• • Psychological Factors
  • A client’s expectations about what drug can do can affect the response to medication
• • Oral
  • the drug is swallowed
• • Sublingual
  • drug is placed under the tongue
• Buccal → dissolved in the cheek
• Parenteral

  • By needle
• • Subcutaneous
  • aka hypodermic is injected 45 degrees in the subcutaneous tissue just below the skin
• • Intramuscular
  • Injected 90 degrees into a muscle
• Intradermal

  Injected 10-15 degrees into the dermis, under the epidermis
• • Intravenous
  • Injected 25 degrees into a vein
• • Intraosseous
  • Into the bone