PHAR 230 EXAM QUESTIONS WITH CORRECT ANSWERS LATEST UPDATE 2026

PHAR 230 EXAM QUESTIONS WITH CORRECT ANSWERS LATEST UPDATE 2026 What is pharmacology? - Answers the study of medicine/drugs what is a drug? - Answers any substance received by a biological system that is not for nutritional purposes What is pharmacokinetics? - Answers what the body does to the drug What is pharmacodynamics? - Answers what the drug does to the body what is pharmacogenomics? - Answers the study of genetic factors that underlie variations in drug responses why do we use drugs? - Answers 1. To achieve a beneficial effect on an individual 2. To exert a toxic effect on an invading organism what is the most common mechanisms of action? - Answers mediated by receptors what is a receptor - Answers a proteins that is the target of drug actions, can be extracellular or intracellular what type of drugs attach to extracellular receptors? - Answers water-soluble drugs what type of drugs attach to intracellular receptors? - Answers fat-soluble drugs what are the forms of drug receptors? - Answers R-regulatory proteins, E-enzymes, S-structural proteins, T-transporters which site of a receptor can drugs bind to? - Answers the active site or the allosteric site what are the drugs that act on the active site called? - Answers full agonists partial agonists antagonists inverse agonists drugs are coupled with... - Answers intracellular receptors ion channel receptors g-protein coupled receptors enzyme-linked receptors dose - Answers the measured quantity of a therapeutic agent to be taken at one time drug response - Answers the response on the body from a drug dose-response relationship - Answers the more drug given, the greater the response, to a certain point potency - Answers the dose or concentration of a drug required to produce a response of a certain magnitude efficacy - Answers the maximal response that a drug can produce as we increase the dose in that system which is clinically favoured: potency or efficacy? - Answers efficacy therapeutic index - Answers Quantitative measurement of the relative safety of a drug, compares the amount of drug that causes therapeutic effect to the amount that causes toxicity how do you calculate TI? - Answers TI = TD50/ED50 (toxic dose to 50% of people to effective dose in 50% of subjects) therapeutic range - Answers the range of drug levels in the blood of a pt in which the drug has the desired effects upon the body do drugs with small therapeutic ranges need to be more closely monitored or are they relatively safe? - Answers need to be very closely monitored ADME - Answers absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion absorption - Answers movement of the drug from site of administration into the bloodstream distribution - Answers movement of drug from blood to tissues metabolism - Answers conversion of a drug into a different compound excretion - Answers Removal of a drug and its metabolites from the body bioavailability - Answers the percentage of a drug that reaches the systemic circulation what method of administration has a bioavailability of 100%? - Answers intravenous lipid soluble drugs can or cannot cross the cell membrane - Answers CAN cross it most drugs are.. - Answers weak acids or weak bases ionized forms of drugs are soluble in... - Answers water unionized forms of drugs are... - Answers soluble in lipids which organ does absorption mainly occur in and why? - Answers the SI, it has a large surface area, lots of blood flow, high permeability distribution determines the drug's... - Answers onset, duration, and intensity volume of distribution - Answers measure of the apparent space in the body available to contain the drug How is Vd calculated? - Answers (total amount of drug in body/drug concentration in the plasma) x 70kg what is the purpose of metabolism of drugs? - Answers to increase the drug's water solubility to help elimination from the body where is the primary site of metabolism? - Answers the LIVER since it has a high concentration of enzymes, high blood flow, and receives blood from the GI what happens in Phase 1 reactions? - Answers usually oxidation via cytochrome P450 enzyme in the liver, more specifically, CYP 3A4 which metabolizes 50% of the drugs, can also be hydrolysis or reduction but less likely what happens in the Phase 2 reaction? - Answers Conjugation: addition of a water-soluble moiety to the product from phase 1 to make it easier for the kidneys to excrete (main ones are sulfation, acetylation, glutathione conjugation, glucuronidation) first pass metabolism - Answers inactivation of orally administered drugs before reaching the systemic circulation, results in barely any drug reaching the blood how can you avoid first pass metabolism? - Answers change the route of administration what is the primary organ in excretion? - Answers the kidneys what are the main processes that occur before excretion? - Answers filtration, reabsorption of important things like water back into the blood, and secretion of waste products into the urine other routes of excretion - Answers lungs, skin, GI tract, body fluids excretion via bile - Answers excreted by hepatocytes into bile and eliminated as feces drug half-life - Answers the amount of time it take to eliminate 50% of the drug from the body t1/2 = - Answers 0.7 x Vd / CL drug clearance - Answers the process of removing the drug from the body, includes metabolism and excretion CL = - Answers rate of elimination of the drug / drug concentration in the blood first order kinetics - Answers body eliminates a fixed percentage of a drug every time period, elimination is directly proportionate to the concentration of the drug, not saturable, relies on the KIDNEYS zero order kinetics - Answers relies on the liver, body eliminates a fixed amount of the drug per unit of time, saturable, rate is independent of the drug conc. Plateau principle - Answers repeated administration of a drug increases the plasma concentration until the rate of administration (input) = the rate of elimination (output), which takes 5 t1/2 to reach it does the plateau principle apply to all drugs? - Answers No, only those that are eliminated via first-order kinetics dosage intervals - Answers the amount you take every interval how to calculate child's dose? - Answers dose = (BSA/1.73) x adult dose latrogenic - Answers error in prescribing/dispensing/administering the drug adverse drug reactions - Answers any harmful or unintended reponses produced by the drug 2 types of ADR - Answers pharmacodynamic and non-pharmacodynamic pharmacodynamic ADRs - Answers extension of the therapeutic effect, could be caused by drug receptors found in organs other than the target one non-pharmacodynamic ADRs - Answers unrelated to main action of the drug drug idiosyncrasy - Answers rare genetic drug reaction teratogenisis - Answers Process by which agent or drug induces physical defects in unborn child. Can be over the counter, viruses, environmental pollutants. idiopathic - Answers unknown cause drug-drug interactions - Answers modification of the effect of one drug by the presence of another, can be beneficial or harmful types of DDI - Answers additive, antagonistic, synergistic, potentiation, altered physiology additive - Answers drugs are given together to double the effectiveness, they both bind to the same receptors (1+1=2) synergistic effect - Answers interaction of two or more medicines that results in a greater effect than when the medicines are taken alone, exaggerates the effect, bind to different receptors (1+1=3) anatagonistic effect - Answers one drug inhibits the other (1+1=0) potentiation drug interaction - Answers 2 drugs given, one makes other stronger, only one gets stronger, do not act on the same receptor ex. penicillin is given with an acid that kills the bacteria that attacks penicillin, which allows the penicillin to stay and do its job for longer) Altered physiology - Answers One drug may alter the normal physiology of the body so that the response to another drug is altered, could result in a toxic combination DDI and absorption - Answers a drug may alter the rate/extent of absorption of another drug ex. laxatives enhance intestinal motility, which decreases absorption of other drugs DDI and distribution - Answers one drug can alter the distribution of another ex. competing for the same proteins binding sites DDI and metabolism - Answers •one drug affecting the metabolism of another drug is the MOST COMMON REASON for DDI •2 drugs metabolized by the same enzyme can compete for the enzyme (CYP3A4) - enzyme can be induced which decreases the drug's effect (like from smoking) - enzyme can be inhibited which increases the drug's effect (from grapefruit) DDI and excretion - Answers could alter kidney function enhancing excretion increases the urine output, which also increases the output of other drugs (diuretics) can also delay excretion Drug-Food Interactions - Answers Food is known to increase, decrease, or delay drug absorption. Food can bind with drugs, causing less or slower drug absorption. Common examples is grapefruit and tyramine-containing foods What is the functional unit of the kidney? - Answers nephron filtrate = - Answers plasma - plasma proteins excretion = - Answers filtration - reabsorption + secretion what is the main purpose of diuretics? - Answers To increase URINE OUTPUT, to eliminate excess fluid from the body major classes of diuretics (5) - Answers 1. thiazide diuretics 2. loop diuretics 3. potassium-sparing diuretics 4. carbonic anhydrase inhibitors 5. osmotic diuretics what is the site of action for each class? - Answers thiazide diuretics = DCT loop = ascending loop of Henle potassium = collecting ducts and DCT