Sherpath Pharmacodynamics | Questions with 100% Correct Answers | Verified | Updated 2023

If a patient receives an average effective dose (ED₅₀) at initial treatment and shows signs of toxicity, which action by the health care provider should the nurse anticipate? - Reduce the dosage. The ED50 is defined as the dose that is required to produce a defined therapeutic response in 50% of the population. Patients who show signs of toxicity will need a dosage reduction. The patient read that a new medication has a high therapeutic index, and asks the nurse what that means. How should the nurse respond? - "A high therapeutic index indicates that a drug is relatively safe." The therapeutic index is a measure of a drug's safety. A large (or high) therapeutic index indicates that a drug is relatively safe. Conversely, a small (or low) therapeutic index indicates that a drug is relatively unsafe. Why is it difficult to predict how each individual patient will respond to a medication? - Therapeutic response can vary between patients due to interpatient variability. The dose required to produce a therapeutic response can vary substantially from patient to patient, because people differ from one another. Because of interpatient variation, it is not possible to predict exactly how an individual patient will respond to medication. Hence, each patient must be evaluated to determine his or her actual response.