Pharmacodynamics

Other Concepts:
Selective Toxicity: Drug attacks only those foreign cell systems
Example: Penicillin vs. Bacterial infections
Chemotherapeutic drugs vs. Rapidly multiplying cells

Factors influencing drug effects:

Weight: The heavier, the more tissues to perfuse
Age: Children and elderly are often more sensitive to drugs than
others
Psychological fx: Placebo effect (if you think it will, it will);
sugar or water (fake ‘drug’)
Tolerance: After continuous use of certain drugs, people must
increase the dosage in order to get the desired
effects
Metabolic Rate: Higher metabolic rate metabolize drugs more
rapidly
Environment: Warm/cold, Noisy/silent
Illness: Liver, Kidney disease
Time of Administration: Empty vs. Full Stomach
Gender: Response is different to same drug and dosage

Drug Effects - Different Types:

Therapeutic effect - desired effect
Side effect - undesirable secondary effect
Adverse effect - unintended effect
Iatrogenic effect - reaction that mimics pathologic condition
(bleeding)
Drug toxicity - drug overdose
Drug allergy - hypersensitivity reaction to a drug
Allegic Reactions:
- Anaphylactic reaction - severe allergic reaction
- usual time of occurrence: within mins to 2 weeks
Drug tolerance - usually low physiologic response to a drug
Cumulative effect - increasing response to repeated drug doses
(Rate of administrations exceeds Metabolism)
Idiosyncratic effect - unexpected and unique drug effect on an
individual
 Example: unusual underresponse to a drug

Drug Interactions:
Synergistic effect - combine drugs to cause greater effect
Additive effect - sum effect=separate effects
Potentiating effect - Drug A boosts the effects of Drug B
Example: Penicillin for bacterial infection → Probenecid is
added → Probenecid blocks excretion of Penicillin
→ Higher blood dose of Penicillin for a longer time
Inhibiting effect (Antagonistic effect)
- Effect of the combined drug interaction is zero
Example: Drug antidote