After reading this chapter, the student should be able to:
- Identify the four major processes of pharmacokinetics.
- Discuss the factors affecting drug absorption.
- Describe how plasma proteins affect drug distribution.
- Explain the significance of the blood-brain barrier, blood-placental barrier, and blood-testicular barrier to drug therapy.
- Explain the importance of the first-pass effect.
- Describe how metabolic enzymes differ in younger and in older patients, and explain the significance of this difference to the success of drug therapy.
- Explain how intermediate products of drug metabolism may produce a more intense response than the original drug.
- Identify the major processes by which drugs are eliminated from the body.
- Explain the importance of enterohepatic recirculation to drug therapy.
- Explain how rate of elimination and plasma half-life (t1/2) are related to the duration of drug action.
- Discuss how successful pharmacotherapy depends on principles of pharmacodynamics.
- Explain the significance of the receptor theory.
- Describe how “blockers” of drug action work.
- Compare and contrast the therapeutic terms potency and efficacy.
