Homework is to be presented as a short (50-100-word) paragraph response for each question. The assignment is to be submitted as a Microsoft Word document electronically to the instructor.
Which dosage forms are most appropriate for administering drugs to pediatric patients? Adults?
What are the processes involved in disintegration and dissolution?
Give a definition of pharmacokinetics.
Examine the processes of absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion, and explain why they occur in this order.
What determines the absorption ability of a drug?
Give a definition of the term pharmacodynamics.
Compare the different ways drugs can interact with the body, depending on their mechanism of action.
What relationship is there between drug response relationships, serum-concentration profile, and drug manufacturing?
How does an adverse effect of a drug occur? What are the causes of some drug-drug interactions?
APA format is not required, but solid academic writing is expected.
You are not required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite.
Sample Paper
Week One Assignment
- Which dosage forms are most appropriate for administering drugs to pediatric patients? Adults?
The most appropriate dosage form for pediatric drug administration is liquid. The liquid medication is especially useful to younger children since they cannot chew or swallow liquids. Hence, even where liquid medicines are unavailable, pediatricians grind and mix tablets with water to improve administration effectiveness (Galande et al., 2020). Meanwhile, oral pills (either capsules or tablets) are the most appropriate for adults. They are easy to ingest, have a high absorption rate, and are convenient.
- What are the processes involved in disintegration and dissolution?
Disintegration involves the breakdown of an orally-consumed drug into tiny particles. Specific processes include chewing and liquid penetration to build capillary bridges (Markl & Zeitler, 2017). Additionally, disintegration breaks down the cohesive forces between the drug’s molecules. The disintegrated particles (molecules) settle in between the structure of the solvent in a process called dissolution. The resulting solution is usually homogenous and enhances absorption.
- Give a definition of pharmacokinetics.
Pharmacokinetics is the time-based action of a drug in the body. It entails determining a drug’s absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion. Therefore, a drug’s pharmacokinetics is the set of properties that define its onset, duration, and intensity in an individual and often vary depending on the internal and external environment. Hence, exploring a drug’s pharmacokinetics allows clinicians to optimize drug efficacy and minimize its toxicity.
- Examine the processes of absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion, and explain why they occur in this order.
Absorption is the movement of a drug into the bloodstream. The drug then travels throughout the body and enters the tissues (distribution). Hence, distribution ensures that the drug reaches the target organs. However, the body recognizes the drug as a foreign substance and attempts to neutralize its impact on the body. The neutralization, called metabolism, occurs in the liver. It involves processes such as oxidation and hydrolysis to render the drug into less potent substances (metabolites) (Le, 2020). Finally, excretion is the process of removing the metabolites from the body, usually through the urinary tract. This pharmacokinetic order affords the drug sufficient time to serve its purpose without any long-lasting damage to other organs.
- What determines the absorption ability of a drug?
A drug’s absorbability depends on drug-associated and patient-related factors (Olson, 2010). Drug-associated factors define the physical and chemical properties of the medication. They include its molecular weight, lipophilicity, and formulation. Meanwhile, patient-associated factors are specific to an individual. Conditions such as stomach acidity, blood flow to the gastrointestinal tract, and whether one had previously eaten food determine whether a drug is absorbed into the bloodstream.
- Give a definition of the term pharmacodynamics.
Pharmacodynamics is the study of how a drug impacts the body’s molecular, biochemical, and physiologic actions (Marino et al., 2021). A drug’s potency comes from various interactions with the biological targets. Thus, pharmacodynamics explores the drug’s impact at a molecular level to determine its receptor binding, post-receptor effects, and chemical interactions.
- Compare the different ways drugs can interact with the body, depending on their mechanism of action.
Drugs’ actions can either be agonist or antagonist. Agonistic action occurs when the drug binds to receptors, activating them (Naish & Court, 2019). Meanwhile, antagonistic action blocks receptors and prevents natural agonists’ activity. Antagonism can be chemical, physiologic, pharmacokinetic, and pharmacologic (Naish & Court, 2019). Since most proteins are receptors, drug action interferes with specific processes causing an illness. Therefore, they may inhibit bacterial protein synthesis, cell wall synthesis, inhibition of enzymatic activity, and block various biochemical pathways.
- What relationship is there between drug response relationships, serum-concentration profile, and drug manufacturing?
The drug–response relationship is the correlation between the amount of the drug that one takes (dose) and its effect (therapeutic or toxic) on the body. Meanwhile, the serum-concentration profile is the drug’s concentration in the body, considering both the bound and unbound molecules. The two metrics are crucial to drug manufacturers since they help them evaluate how much medication one should consume to balance therapy and toxicity. Therefore, the drug manufacturing process must incorporate lab tests to establish these parameters and predict how they affect people with essential clinical variations.
- How does an adverse effect of a drug occur? What are the causes of some drug-drug interactions?
Adverse drug effects occur when a drug causes extended, unintended action on other sites. Meanwhile, the causes of drug-drug interactions are antagonism (one drug limits the other’s therapeutic impact), potentiation (one drug magnifies another’s impact), additivity (combination of multiple drugs to create new effects), and synergism (one drug causes a dramatic increase in another’s effect).
References
Galande, A. D., Khurana, N. A., & Mutalik, S. (2020). Pediatric dosage forms—challenges and recent developments: A critical review. Journal of Applied Pharmaceutical Science, 10(7), 155-166. DOI: 10.7324/JAPS.2020.10718
Le, J. (2020). Drug Metabolism. https://www.msdmanuals.com/professional/clinical-pharmacology/pharmacokinetics/drug-metabolism
Marino, M., Jamal, Z., & Zito, P. M. (2021, Feb. 10). Pharmacodynamics. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK507791/
Markl, D., & Zeitler, J. A. (2017). A Review of Disintegration Mechanisms and Measurement Techniques. Pharmaceutical Research, 34(5), 890–917. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11095-017-2129-z
Naish, J., & Court, D. S. (2019). Medical Sciences (3rd ed.). Elsevier.
Olson, J. (2010). Clinical pharmacology made ridiculously simple (4th ed.). MedMaster.
