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NURS 251 Pharmacology Module 1-10 BUNDLE NEW 2023- Portage Learning (Final Exam Also Included 100%) A

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  • November 29, 2023
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NURS 251 Pharmacology Module 1-10 BUNDLE NEW 2021- Portage Learning (Final Exam Also Included 100%) A+




NURS 251 Pharmacology Module 1-10 BUNDLE NEW 2021-
Portage Learning (Final Exam Also Included 100%) A+




A+

, NURS 251 Pharmacology Module 1-10 BUNDLE NEW 2021- Portage Learning (Final Exam Also Included 100%) A+
Module 1


1.1 : An Introduction to Pharmacology Concepts

Pharmacology is the study or science of drugs. What is a drug? A drug is any chemical that affects the

physiologic processes of a living organism. Commonly, the term drug refers to any medication that is used for

diagnosing, curing, or treating disease.

Drug Effects

Drugs have many different effects on the body including the following: (1) therapeutic effects, (2) side effects, (3)

adverse effects, and (4) toxic effects.


Therapeutic effect is the desired drug effect to alleviate some condition or symptom.


Side effects are the drug effect other than the therapeutic effect that are usually undesirable but not harmful.


Adverse effect is a general term for undesirable and potentially harmful drug effects.


Toxic effects are undesirable drug effects that implies the drug is poisoning the body and can be harmful or even

life- threatening.


Clinically, it is important to recognize the difference between these different ways drugs can affect the body. A

simple side effect could be something as harmless as mild nausea after taking a medication that can be

managed by taking it with food. The drug therapy can continue without a problem. However, adverse effects

need to be assessed to determine whether there is any risk of harm. Drug therapy is often a risk vs. benefit

assessment. The patient’s provider should weigh the risk of taking the medication vs. the benefit. It often

comes down to the severity of the disease being treated to decide the number of adverse events that will be

tolerated. A good example of this is chemotherapy treatments for cancer. There are often adverse events

associated with these treatment regimens, yet the treatment is continued because the benefit of treating the

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, NURS 251 Pharmacology Module 1-10 BUNDLE NEW 2021- Portage Learning (Final Exam Also Included 100%) A+
cancer is greater than the adverse events the patient experiences. However, there are certainly times when a

treatment becomes too toxic, and the patient is unable to tolerate the regimen. This is often a large part of

managing a cancer patient’s treatment, to assess how they are handling the adverse effects associated with

the treatment regimen and determine whether it is becoming too toxic and needs to be suspended.

Basic Concepts

There are some basic concepts that are important to understand and that can be applied to any drug. Most

important is the drug’s mechanism of action—how a drug produces its effects. This course will cover the

accepted mechanism of action of known drugs. When a drug enters the body, it has a targeted site of action—

the location within the body where a drug exerts its therapeutic effect, often a specific drug receptor.

Generally, these sites of action or receptors are on the surface or inside a cell. Receptors are specific cellular

structures that a drug binds to in order to produce a physiologic effect. When a drug binds to a receptor, it can

act either as an agonist, works to activate a physiologic response or drug effect, or an antagonist, works to

interfere with other drugs or substances from producing a drug-effect.


The dose-dependent relationship is a basic principle of pharmacology which states that the response to any

drug depends on the amount of drug given. This is referred to as the dose dependent relationship. A dose is

the exact amount of drug that is given. As shown in Figure 1.1, the onset of action is the time from the drug

administration to the first observable effect. The duration of action is the length of time that the drug

continues to produce its effect. All drugs have a therapeutic range defined as when the drug concentration is

above the minimum effective concentration and below the maximum tolerate concentration.




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, NURS 251 Pharmacology Module 1-10 BUNDLE NEW 2021- Portage Learning (Final Exam Also Included 100%) A+




Figure 1.1 The change in plasma drug concentration over time. The Therapeutic range represented by the

area between the Minimum tolerated concentration (MTC) and Minimum effective concentration (MEC). Cmax is

the maximum concentration, and tmax is the time it takes to reach the maximum concentration. The time the

drug is above the MEC is the duration of action. If the drug concentration goes above the MTC, it is considered

the toxic range. Similarly, if the drug concentration is below the MEC, it is in the ineffective range.

Nomenclature

All drugs are chemicals, and many have long chemical names that define the chemical composition of the

drug. In addition, they are given a shorter non-proprietary name or generic name. The generic name, also

known as a non- proprietary name, is the name that we will use for assessments throughout the course. Drugs

are marketed under a trade name, also called a brand name, by pharmaceutical companies under a patented

proprietary name specific to that manufacturer. These names may be somewhat confusing because more

often than not, one manufacturer will market a medication that leads to multiple trade names for the same

pharmaceutical compound. For example, the common blood pressure medication, lisinopril, is marketed under

both Prinivil and Zestril.


Beyond this basic nomenclature system, it is important to know that drugs also fall into categories called drug

classes. Drug classes represent a group of drugs that all work by a common general mechanism of action. They

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